Shadows and Sparks
by Sparky-da-Hedgehog
Summary: When Chaos Emeralds begin to be stolen by unknown beings, Sonic and his friends set out on another adventure to catch the thieves. But there's more to these events than just simple thievery... Sonic's got work to do!
1. Part 1

"...in other news, there have been a series of burglaries throughout cities in the area. The burglars seem to be striking at random, robbing everything from jewelry stores to local residences. However, in the end, only two robberies actually ended in something being stolen. In both cases, it was one of the mythic Chaos Emeralds..."

"Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic said, the TV suddenly catching more of his attention. Sonic was in Tails' workshop, helping him work on modifications to the Tornado. But in the end, Sonic was mainly just watching Tails' new TV.

"Sonic, I know it's new, but that doesn't mean you have to watch it... can you hand me that wrench?" Tails said.

"Huh? Oh, sure, here you go." Sonic responded, only looking away from the TV for a moment to see what Tails was asking for.

"...there have been two different descriptions, though vague, given for the burglar, but they share some traits: they are both described as hedgehogs in their teens, resembling Sonic the Hedgehog."

"WHAT!?" Sonic yelled, cause Tails to bang his head.

"Sonic, what's wrong?" Tails asked, rubbing his head.

"It seems like there's a couple more Shadows running loose!" Sonic said.

"I can assure you..." Shadow said from the corner of the room, "...that I'm the only one."

"Shadow! When did you get here?" Tails asked.

"Never mind that." Shadow said, "You do realize, that as long as that emerald is here, you're a target, right?" The red Chaos Emerald was sitting right on Tails' workbench.

"Don't worry!" Sonic said, "I'd like to see those guys try to get it!"

"Don't be overconfident, you blue idiot!" Shadow said, "I have a feeling that they might be dangerous."

"Shadow, when AREN'T people that are after the emeralds dangerous?" Sonic replied

As shadow was a about to respond, he suddenly cringed, "GET DOWN!"

An explosion suddenly broke apart Tails' wall. Amidst the sounds of crumbling bricks and fire, Sonic heard the sound of quick running, heading toward the workbench.

"Oh no you don't!" Sonic said, getting up while covered in debris. He dashed over, and gave whoever was there a swift kick to the head, knocking him down. Just as Sonic was about to pin him, the thief suddenly warped out of the way, grabbed the emerald, and took off.

"Was that...Chaos Control...?" Sonic said. Coming out of shock, he then said, "Tails! Shadow! We have to get out of here!"

"Tails is unconscious!" Shadow yelled, "Help me get him out of here!"

They picked up Tails and got him out of the workshop.

"I know Tails keeps an emergency hose around here, somewhere!" Sonic said, "Ah! There it is!"

Sonic managed to get the fire under control, although it left plenty of damage. He then walked over to where Tails was with Shadow.

"Lucky Tails is prepared for malfunctions and such... is he gonna be alright?" Sonic asked.

"He's fine. He just got hit on the head." Shadow said, and then kneeled down by Tails, "WAKE UP!" he yelled while slapping Tails across the face.

"Your bedside manner needs a little work, Shadow..."

"Uuh? What happened?" Tails asked in a daze.

"Your workshop got blown up and your emerald got stolen! THAT'S what happened!" Shadow yelled.

"WHAT!?" Tails yelled as he shot up, looking at his ruined workplace.

"You two should have been more careful." Shadow said.

"How could we? We didn't know about the burglaries until today!" Sonic yelled.

"You should always be cautious when you have a Chaos Emerald!"

"We'll get it back, don't worry!" Sonic said, looking at the workshop, "Looks like it's time for another adventure, huh guys? But we MIGHT need some more allies!" Sonic then took off in the direction of Angel Island, "You guys coming, or what?"

"Ahh..." Shadow said in annoyance, taking off after him, "He's gonna get himself killed if he's not careful."

Tails suddenly snapped into focus. "Gah! Hey, wait for me!", he said, jumping into the sky and flying off in their direction, briefly looking over his shoulder at the ruined workshop again.

* * *

"You guys go too fast sometimes..." Tails said, catching up to a stopped Shadow, "Where's Sonic?"

"Up there." Shadow said, pointing at Angel Island, floating in the sky.

"How did he get up there...?" Tails asked.

"Beats me." Shadow said, "I can tell already he's gonna cause me trouble. He never takes anything seriously enough."

"Well, that's how Sonic acts!", Tails said, "But he comes through in the end, right?"

"That's because he's lucky." Shadow said with a sigh, and then looked at Tails, "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Fly me up there."

"Uh?! I can't fly that far!" Tails complained, "Besides, can't you just use Chaos Control?"

"I would, if I had an Emerald." Shadow said, "Well, he'll be down soon. Let's look around here for a while. I feel chaos energy nearby..."

* * *

Meanwhile, up on the Island, Knuckles was performing his duty, guarding the Master Emerald.

"Hey Knuckles!" came Sonic's voice, "How ya doin', buddy?"

"Sonic..." Knuckles said, looking over at the hedgehog, "How do you always find your way up here..."

"I have my ways..." Sonic said, glancing around, "Anyway, do you mind helping out?"

"Does it have to do with that explosion I heard...?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, what's going on?"

"You see, there are a couple Chaos Emerald thieves around here lately, and I want to make sure they don't cause anymore trouble!" Sonic said.

"So in other words...", Knuckles said, "...It's an adventure?"

"Yup!"

"Count me out."

"What!?" Sonic yelled, "Knuckles, you can't be serious!"

"Sonic... I'm serious. I'm VERY serious."

"But why?"

"I haven't been paying enough attention to my duties." Knuckles said, looking over at the Master Emerald, "I've realized that every time I get involved in an adventure, I either abandon the Master Emerald, I have to get it back, or It gets shattered!"

"You know, one of those times it shattered WAS your doing..." Sonic said.

"Shut up!" Knuckles said, "My answer is no, Sonic. And it's gonna take more than YOU to change my mind!"

Meanwhile, unknown to Sonic and Knuckles, Rouge the Bat was secretly watching them from a nearby tree, waiting for a chance to claim her prize, the lovely Master Emerald.

"Shoot...", she said to herself, "Usually he just takes off... and I'm getting sick of waiting! Maybe I can take it while he's arguing..."

"Huh?" Sonic said, looking over at Rouge's hiding spot.

"What is it?" Knuckles said.

"I thought I just saw... never mind..." Sonic said, looking back at Knuckles, "Sooo... you're coming, right?"

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU NO!" Knuckles yelled, grabbing Sonic and shaking him.

"Ah! Take it easy, Knuckle-head!"

"WHAT?! YOU WANNA FIGHT, SMART GUY?!"

"Sure, why not?" Sonic said with a smirk, "But if I win, you have to help without a complaint!"

"Fine! But if I win, I'm throwing you off this island!" Knuckles yelled, "I hope you like skydiving!"

"Sorry, not my hobby! But I can see being stubborn is yours!"

"THAT'S IT!" Knuckles yelled, as the first punch was thrown.

After a bit of fighting, with Rouge enjoying the show, It seemed like Knuckles had Sonic pinned.

"Alright, Sonic!" Knuckles yelled, "I'm gonna knock you out and toss you over the edge! We'll see if you can fly in your sleep!"

"My my..." Came an unfamiliar voice, "Such a temper... of course, you never were one to keep your cool..."

Knuckles and Sonic both looked over to the Master Emerald, and standing on top of it was new face. He was a purple hedgehog with jagged, Shadow-like spikes, with a blue stripe on his head, which separated into two on his forehead. He had black shoes and baggy, black pants, held up by a yellow belt.

"Whoa!", Sonic said as Knuckles let him up, "Sweet contacts!" The stranger's eyes had red pupils and black irises. "Where can I get a pair of those?"

"Heh, sorry, but these are my actual eyes." The stranger said, "But, truthfully, they aren't naturally this color."

"Is purple your natural color?" Sonic asked with a smile.

"Sonic, be quiet..." Knuckles said, "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"Hmph." The stranger said with a frown, looking at Knuckles, "Sorry, but you interrupted our conversation..."

"Don't toy with me! Who are you?!"

"...well, it is true, I haven't introduced myself..." The stranger stepped down from the Master Emerald, "My name is Charge, and you can say I'm a treasure hunter of sorts... I'm looking for the Chaos Emeralds."

"Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic said, "You're one of the emerald thieves, aren't you?!"

"Well, the media HAS labeled me that way." Charge said, "But continuing with what I'm saying, I'm looking for the Chaos Emeralds. And it seems your Master Emerald's energy has lead my off the trail. It's a bit annoying, and I get irritated easily... so to release my anger..."

Charge floated up into the air.

"I think I'll destroy it!"

"WHAT!?" Knuckles yelled. Charge took out the light blue Chaos Emerald, and started to charge up energy.

"SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR PRECIOUS STONE!" Charge yelled, and then unleashed the stored up energy as a powerful beam, firing it at the Master Emerald. Knuckles tried to dash over to it, but the beam hit the emerald, causing a bright flash.

When the light cleared, all that was left of the Master Emerald was a small shard at Knuckles' feet.

"Ah!" Charge said, "I feel better... now, I'll be going..." And then he warped out of sight.

There was silence for a moment. But Knuckles fell to the ground, and did something Sonic never saw him do before: cry.

"Knuckles..." Sonic said, looking at his friend. Rouge, who was still in hiding, felt like she might cry, too.

After a few moments Angel Island started to fall, and Knuckles got up. He picked the shard up, and said, "Sonic, let's go."

"H-huh?" Sonic said, "I thought you weren't coming..."

"No. I'm coming. But not for you. And not for saving the world." Knuckles said, his voice quivering a bit, "I'm going for revenge. I'll make that guy wish he never met me..."

Knuckles used a string to tie the emerald shard around his neck, and waited for Angel Island to hit the water below.

* * *

Upon arriving at the shore, Sonic and Knuckles found Shadow and Tails completely drenched. It was obvious that they were hit by the massive tidal wave Angel Island caused upon hitting the water.

"If the Island is gonna fall, you should at least give us a warning!" Tails yelled, "Knuckles, did you break the Master Emerald again?! I swear, sometimes-"

"Tails." Shadow cut in, "Shut up." Shadow was staring at the emerald shard around Knuckles' neck. "I'm sorry for your loss, Knuckles."

"Heh... I had a feeling you'd know." Knuckles said, "Can we get going? I have some business to take care of, as Sonic knows."

"Heh, yeah." Sonic said, "You've got your mind set on it, too."

"By the way, Sonic..." Knuckles whispered, "I'm broken up about what happened... but if you tell ANYBODY... that I cried back there, you'll find yourself in the same grave as that Charge guy..."

"No problamo, Knux." Sonic said, knowing he was probably serious.

"Hey, Rouge!" Shadow suddenly yelled out, "If you're gonna stalk us, be a little stealthier."

"Ooh!" Rouge said, coming out of a nearby tree, "I should have known you'd find me."

"Whoa..." Tails said, "You're really keen to your surroundings, Shadow! I'd have never known she was back there!"

"Well, she's welcome to come along!" Sonic said, "The more, the merrier!"

"...hmph! Fine!" Rouge said, turning her head, "But it's just because I don't have anything better to do!"

* * *

"Well... they seem to be having fun..." said a hedgehog, looking through a pair of binoculars at Sonic's group from a nearby hill. He was in his teens, green in color with yellow stripes on his head and spikes. Wearing a pair of baggy blue jeans and a gray jacket, he flung his rucksack over his shoulder and stared at them with his blue eyes.

This seemingly dramatic looking scene was interrupted by his stomach growling.

"Uuh..." He said to himself, "I thought I bought all my supplies before I started going after the emeralds... but I forgot to buy food..."

"Here!" Came a voice from behind him. The hedgehog spun around, ready to fight, only to see a bee handing a chocolate bar to him. "I was saving it for later, but you seem like you need it more!"

"Uh... thank you?" the hedgehog said, accepting his gift.

"I'm Charmy, by the way!" Charmy said, "What's your name?"

"My name's Sparky..." Sparky replied.

"And are you an Emerald Thief?"

"UH?!"

"DARN IT, CHARMY!" Came another voice, "You weren't supposed to be so forward!"

A green crocodile jumped out from behind a rock, and before Sparky could react, a purple chameleon appeared behind him and hooked his arms around Sparky's shoulders.

"We're Team Chaotix!" Said the crocodile, "And you're under arrest for suspicions of stealing Chaos Emeralds! Search his stuff, Charmy!"

"Okey-dokey, Vector!" Charmy said.

"What?! No!" Sparky said, struggling.

"I'd advise you not to fight and come with us..." the chameleon said, "I'd rather not use more force than I am right now."

"Right! Keep him still, Espio!" Vector said, "What's takin' you so long, Charmy?"

"Hey, Vector! Espio!", Charmy said, "He's got a really pretty picture in here!"

"Pictures? We want Chaos Emeralds, you nut-"

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Sparky yelled. He managed to get his arms free, and unconsciously warped over and grabbed the picture.

"WOAH! Did you see that?!" Charmy said, "I bet he's a ninja like you, Espio!"

"That wasn't Ninjitsu..." Espio said, his arms hurting slightly, "That was Chaos Control, wasn't it?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you capture me!" Sparky yelled, ignoring Espio as he grabbed his stuff and took off.

"AFTER HIM!" Vector yelled, "That guy's got a big reward on him! We can't let that money get away!"

Team Chaotix dashed off along the plains after Sparky. Sparky, a small ways up ahead, was breathing heavily.

"Darn... it!" Sparky panted, "I shouldn't have done that! I'm out of breath already!"

Espio suddenly appeared in front of him, "Sorry, I'm not letting you get any farther!" Sparky then barely managed to miss having his nose cut off by a giant shuriken as he dodged Espio's attack. After that, Vector suddenly ran in swinging his fists, and Charmy flew up trying to sting Sparky. Sparky, of course, didn't know how long he could keep up dodging the attacks, as he already was very tired.

"I don't want to fight!" Sparky said, "I just don't want you to catch me!"

"Sorry, bub!" Vector said, "We need the reward money from you, and it looks like we can only get it by knocking you out!"

* * *

The skirmish was wild enough, that it managed to get Sonic's attention.

"Guy's! That way!" Sonic said, "Looks like someone's fighting!"

There was suddenly a bright flash of light from the direction of the fight.

"Chaos energy!" Shadow said, "That could be one of our emerald thieves! We have to get over there!"

When they got over to the spot of the fight, all they found was a smashed pair of binoculars, a torn piece of a photo, and the Chaotix detective agency knocked out on the ground. But off in the distance...

"Sonic, look!" Tails said, "Someone's running away!"

"I'll get him! Knuckles, follow me!" Sonic yelled, taking off.

"Got it!" Knuckles dashed after Sonic.

"Wait, what are we supposed to do?!" Tails yelled after.

"And what are we supposed to do with THEM?" Shadow said, looking at the unconscious detectives.

"Hey, Shadow..." Tails said, "Check it out..." Tails was referring to the photo. The photo seemed to be a piece of what was a group shot. But that's not exactly what caught their attention: the piece clearly contained what obviously looked like Knuckles and the back of a set of spikes that looked like Shadows. It also had a purple hedgehog and a brown tail in it.

"Weird... that's Knuckles alright, but he looks so much older..." Shadow said, thinking deeply.

His thoughts were interrupted, though when Tails said, "Where's Rouge?"

* * *

"Keep on going, Knuckles!", Sonic said, "He looks pretty tired out! We're almost there!"

The thief suddenly made a sharp turn to the right at a tree. Sonic kept going, and kicked his foot against the tree in order to make the same turn the thief did, and he launched himself in pursuit. Unfortunately, Knuckles crashed headlong into it.

"Son of a-!" Knuckles yelled, but he looked up, realizing sonic had taken off, "Hey! Where do you think you're going without me!"

However, Knuckles seemed to have hit something on the tree, as a passageway suddenly opened up at the tree's roots, revealing a stair case leading down.

"What the...?" Knuckles looked down, "A metal staircase...? I have a feeling I know who put this here... Sonic can wait!" Knuckles then dashed down the stairs.

* * *

"Doctor Eggman!" A Robot yelled into an intercom, "We have a security alert!"

"What!? What happened?" The mad scientist said over the speaker

"It seems we have an intruder, Doctor!"

"From where?!"

"Sector B!"

"Let me see! Feed through the security footage!" Doctor Eggman said from what seemed to be a control room. A video popped up on a large viewing screen, showing two hedgehogs kicking up against the tree the security camera was in and dashing off to the right, and then an echidna crashing into it.

"I see..." Eggman said, watching the echidna enter the passageway he discovered, "So it's that gullible fool Knuckles! Metal Sonic!" he yelled in the intercom.

Moments later, the metal hedgehog came into the room.

"Yes, Doctor?" Metal Sonic said in his metallic voice.

"We have an intruder! Head to sector B immediately and assist security!" Eggman said, "That echidna managed to find his way in."

"What about... him?" Metal Sonic said, looking at the repeating footage of Sonic

"I'm going to find out what that hedgehog is up to, and find out who he was chasing!" The Doctor said, "Now get going!"

"Yes, Doctor." Metal Sonic said, as he walked put of the room. He paused outside the door, as he suddenly recalled his battle with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles high in the sky. "I remember it..." Metal Sonic said, as he started heading towards the intruder.

* * *

"This situation seems like it's getting a bit hairy..." Rouge said, flying away in the opposite direction of the group, "But the reward for those thieves is probably high! If I can catch one, I could ask for my reward in jewels..."

"...perhaps you could ask for a diamond ring?" came a voice from behind her. Rouge spun around to see Charge floating behind her.

She landed, and said, "You! You're that hedgehog from the island!"

"Yes, and YOU'RE that sneaky bat the was hiding in a tree." Charge said, smiling, "Don't think I didn't notice you..."

"What do you want?!" Rouge yelled.

"Weren't you the one who just said you wanted to capture me...?" Charge said, sneering, "Well, here I am! Go on!"

"CHARGE!" Came another voice, "Don't you DARE touch her!"

"My, my... what a rude brother..." Charge said, looking in the direction the voice came from, "Sparky, it's not polite to interrupt people's conversations!"

Sparky ran up and said, "Where so you get off lecturing me!?"

"You're manners haven't improved at all since you were just a little crybaby..." Charge said, now frowning, "Oh wait... you still are one!"

Sparky suddenly nailed charge in the face with a quick punch, knocking him to the ground.

"Sparky..." Charge said, "You DO know that I hate it when you make me angry... and now I am very... VERY angry!"

"Charge, I've lost all respect for you!" Sparky yelled, "I don't care what you think anymore!"

"Hmph! You know very well I've always been better at fighting, and you STILL defy me?" Charge said, "Very well, you've sealed your fate!" Charge took the light blue chaos emerald out of his pocket, "Let's see how well you hold up!

"EZMRHS!" Charge yelled, and suddenly vanished into thin air.

"Wh-what!?" Rouge said in amazement as Sparky started to get beat up by nothing, The chaos emeralds can turn people invisible?!

Suddenly, Charge reappeared, holding not only the light blue, but the red emerald, too.

"Give that back!" Sparky yelled.

"I think not!" Charge said, holding the red emerald up, "NLIKS!"

A red beam fired out of the emerald, and Sparky attempted to dodge. But the beam hit his foot with a flash of light. When the light cleared, Rouge looked in horror as she saw that Sparky's foot had been turned to stone.

"Well, well! Looks like you can move very well with a rock for a foot!" Charge said, as Sparky tried to drag himself away, "It's been fun, brother, but this foolishness must end!"

Charge started charging an attack as Sparky looked around frantically for a way out of his predicament. He spotted a pebble and tossed it at Charge. He then held up the blue emerald, and shouted "TILDGS!"

A blue beam hit the pebble, making it balloon to the size of a boulder. The boulder then crashed into Charge, knocking him back and landing on top of him. Sparky dragged his way over to Rouge and grabbed onto her.

"We're getting out of here!" Sparky said to Rouge.

"Who... what are you?!" She yelled.

"You can call me Sparky Da Hedgehog! And don't worry, I'm on your side!" Sparky said.

He held his blue emerald over his head and yelled, "CHAOS CONTROL!"

Sparky and Rouge warped away, as Charge manged to push the boulder off of him.

"SPARKY! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU GET AWAY!" he yelled, "THE EIGHT CHAOS EMERALDS WILL BE MINE!"

With an explosion of energy, Charge obliterated the boulder and took off into the air, in search of his brother.


	2. Part 2

In a clearing in the woods, a large purple cat, named Big, and his frog friend, called Froggy, were sitting by a small pond fishing. Big smiled at Froggy, as he listened to the calming sound of a small waterfall near by pouring into the water

Suddenly, there was a burst of energy, which knocked Big and Froggy into the woods around them. Following the energy burst, Rouge and Sparky warped into the clearing.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that..." Sparky said breathing heavily, "Chaos Control takes a lot out of me..."

Not showing any sympathy to the tired hedgehog, Rouge picked Sparky up by his jacket.

"Okay, listen here!" Rouge said angrily, "I want answers! Just who are you and and what are you doing here? Why do you want the emeralds? Since when can they do all that crazy stuff? And what's the deal with that Charge guy?!"

"Uh, well..." Sparky said, looking around nervously.

"Answer me , you punk!" Rouge yelled, shaking Sparky.

"O-OKAY!" Sparky said, "I'll tell you what you want to know! Just stop shaking me!"

Rouge stopped shaking Sparky, and after a moment, she dropped him on the ground.

"Can you do me a favor, though?" Sparky said.

"WHAT?!" Rouge yelled.

"If you haven't noticed, my foot is, uh..." Sparky said, "...still a rock..."

Rouge looked down, and notice that Sparky's foot was indeed still stone.

"The effects aren't permanent, but I'd like to undo it now... so could you please check around here for a Chaos Emerald? I warped us here, because I think one is nearby..." Sparky said.

Rouge looked at Sparky for a second. "All right." She said, "But you better give me some answers when I find it!"

After a long while, Rouge finally found it behind the waterfall: the white Chaos Emerald.

"Ah, good." Sparky said, "It's the right one."

Sparky took the emerald from Rouge, and held it in front of him.

"Ivevihy!" Sparky said, he started to glow with a soft, white light.. His foot gradually changed back to normal.

"Okay, I found the emerald for you." Rouge said, "Now would you PLEASE explain what's going on?"

"...all right, I guess I do owe you an explanation, considering you, Sonic and the others got caught up in this mess. But I actually expected they would..." Sparky said.

"You seem to know a lot about us..." Rouge said.

"Because I DO know you." Sparky said, "Just... not at this time. Me and Charge are from a different time period."

* * *

"Looks like a fight went on here..." Tails said, looking at the slightly damaged landscape and remains of a boulder.

"No kidding." Shadow said, "The emeralds were used here. I can feel it. But it feels different than Chaos Control..."

"Hey guys!" came Sonic's voice.

"Sonic!" Tails said, running over to his friend.

"What happened here?" Sonic said, looking around.

"A fight. It seems that our emerald thieves aren't on the friendliest of terms." Shadow said as he kept observing the area, not turning to Sonic.

"Sonic where's Knuckles?" Tails asked.

"I dunno!" Sonic said, "I got so caught up in chasing the green guy, I lost track of him. Knuckles can handle himself, though."

"Well, well... what do we have here!" came a familiar voice from behind the group. They all turned to see Dr. Eggman in his Eggmobile, with what looked like a small Egg Carrier flying up from the distance.

"Eggman!" Sonic yelled.

"Nice to see you remember me." Eggman said sarcastically, "Say, Sonic! What happened to that friend of yours you were chasing? What are you and him up to, eh?"

"Sorry, Eggman! But I lost track of him!" Sonic said, "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I have a feeling you're up to something, and I don't like it!" Eggman said, "And I especially don't like that there's suddenly another hedgehog running loose somewhere! Since I want to make sure you don't end up meddling with me, I've decided to eliminate you a bit early!"

"Oh yeah, you and what army?" Tails said.

"Oh... I don't need an army!" Eggman said. He pressed a button on his control panel, and said "Deploy it!"

A robot was suddenly dropped out of the small carrier, and it landed in front of Sonic, Shadow, and Tails. The robot resembled a large, red and yellow mechanical wolf with pure green eyes,

"Do you like it?" Eggman said, as a hatch opened up in the wolf's back and the Eggmobile started to fly down into it, "I call it the Egg Hound!"

With Eggman securely inside his robot, the hatch closed and the Egg Hound went into attack mode.

"Nice new toy, Eggman!" Sonic said, "C'mon, guys! Let's turn this thing into scrap metal!"

"Ok, Sonic!" Tails said, eager to fight.

"Fools!" Eggman said, "You won't beat me that easily! Prepare to die!"

The Egg Hound launched itself at the group. Sonic dodged to the left, Shadow dodged to the right, and Tails took off into the air.

"All right, guys! Time for a three way attack!" Sonic said. All three of them spun and launched themselves at the head of the Egg Hound. Unfortunately, they bounced off onto the ground.

"Ho ho!" Eggman laughed from inside his robot, "It'll take more than you silly spinning to defeat the Egg Hound! It's made from triple reinforced steel! Plus, I gave it a force field that covers it's entire outside! It'll take a miracle for you to break through, even with your chaos attacks, Shadow!"

"Shoot!" Sonic said, rubbing his head.

"Now, get a load of this!" Eggman said, as the Egg Hound opened it's mouth. Flames spewed out of it's throat, and shot out towards Tails. Tails tried his best to dodge, but the flames hit his tails.

"But that's not all!" Eggman said, as Tails patted out the flames. The Egg Hounds teeth then fired out of it's mouth, revealing each one to be a missile. After Sonic's group dodged a series of explosions, the teeth grew back.

"Man, this one's tough!" Sonic said, panting.

"Stay focused!" Shadow yelled, as the Egg Hound lunged at the group again.

After dodging a few more barrages of attacks from the Egg Hound, Shadow said,

"Sonic! I think I know how to beat him!"

"I'm all ears, buddy!" Sonic said.

"Whenever the robot launched those flames or missiles, the colors on it seem to dim! I think that's it's forcefield going down! Eggman can't get attacks out if it's up!" Shadow said.

"Then we have to attack while it's defenses are lowered!" Sonic said in realization

"But that might not be enough!" Shadow yelled, jumping out of the way of an incoming missile, "That thing will still be tough to damage, even without the extra defense!"

"Aim for the joints!" Tails yelled, "Since they have to move more, they might be less armored!"

"Got it!" Sonic and Shadow yelled together. As Eggman prepared for another missile attack, Shadow grabbed Sonic by his ankles and spun around in a circle, building up momentum to toss Sonic. As the missiles fired and the forcefield went down, Shadow tossed Sonic full force at the Egg Hound's front joints.

"Okay! Time for a Sonic buzz saw!" Sonic said, as he started to spin, tuning himself into what was essentially a bladed discus. Sonic managed to chop right through the front-left legs' joint, causing the Egg Hound to stumble forward

"Augh!" Eggman said, getting himself straitened up inside the robot, "No matter! I can still stand on three legs!"

"What about two?" Shadow asked.

"What?!"

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow launched a powerful blast of energy that ripped through the joint on the front-right leg.

"NO!" Eggman yelled as the Egg Hound fell forward.

"Nice one, Shadow!" Sonic said, running up to him.

"Yeah..." Shadow said, "Unfortunately, that used up a lot of my energy."

"You annoying pests! Don't you think I prepared for something like this?!" Eggman yelled. The legs of the Egghound folded up into the robot, and boosters activated from it's underside, allowing it to hover.

"Uh oh!" Tails said,"What are we gonna do, Sonic?"

"It's probably damaged from it's fall!" Sonic said, "We might still be able to beat it!"

"Ha ha!" Eggman said, "You might as well give up! I'm going too-"

"Doctor Robotnik!" Said a voice suddenly from Eggman's intercom, "The intruder is causing a lot of trouble! And he's heading towards your workshop!"

"What?! What's Metal Sonic doing, taking a nap!?" Eggman yelled, "He should be holding him off! Argh! Well, Sonic, it looks like I have to cut my visit short! Your friend is causing a bit of trouble back at my base! I'll retreat for now, but next time, you won't be so lucky!"

The Egghound flew back up into the carrier, and the carrier started flyng back in the direction it came from.

"My friend?" Sonic said, "Does he mean Knuckles?"

"EEEYAH! TAKE THAT!" Knuckles yelled as hit smashed his fist through a robot. He had been going around Eggman's base tearing up everything he could find after security had found him.

"I gotta stop whatever Eggman's planning before he starts it!" Knuckles said to himself, "These robots don't put up much of a fight, though. COME ON,GIVE ME A REAL FIGHT!"

"As you wish!" Came Metal Sonic's voice as he suddenly came crashing through and straight into Knuckles' side.

"OOF!" Knuckles said as he crashed into the wall.

"I've been watching, and I think you've done enough." Metal Sonic said, "I suppose I shouldn't have had so much faith in the Doctor's security."

"Metal Sonic!" Knuckles said, getting up, "It's been a while since I had a good fight with you!"

"Very true." Metal Sonic said, "I've been meaning to destroy you for a long time!"

Suddenly, with a flash of energy, Metal Sonic suddenly changed into his Neo Metal Sonic form.

"Do you remember this form? It's this form that I first used to try to rule this pitiful world, in the place of that bumbling doctor! But you and your companions ruined my plans... my plans to rule... my plans to become the only Sonic!"

"You definitely have some issues!" Knuckles chuckled.

"Laugh all you want." Metal Sonic said, "I'm going to get rid of you first... and then I'll destroy that loathsome hedgehog! Only I deserve to be Sonic!"

Not seeing this particular form for long, Knuckles didn't quite know what to expect from Neo Metal Sonic. But after a while of hand to hand combat, it was clear Metal Sonic was no match for Knuckles.

"Give up!" Knuckles said, "You can't win!"

"No... perhaps not..." Metal Sonic said, feeling low on power from the fight, "But I know what will give me the edge."

Metal Sonic then tuned a silvery color, and melted into a metallic liquid. The liquid inched it's way over to a fallen robot security guard, with a missile shooting arm cannon. The robot was absorbed into the puddle, and Metal Sonic soon reformed afterwards.

"What are you up too?" Knuckles said.

"Don't you recall? In this form, I have the ability to copy data from nearly anything." Metal Sonic said, as his hand turned the silvery color again, "Then, I can take it's shape and use it's abilities as much as I want!"

Metal Sonic's hand then transformed into an exact copy of the Security Robot's arm cannon.

"Although I'm a little rusty with this ability. Let's see how well it works!" Metal Sonic said. The arm cannon fired a missile right at Knuckles. Knuckles managed to dodge, but the explosion of the missile hitting the door to Eggman's Workshop forced him forward right into Metal Sonic's fist. He put the cannon up To Knuckles' chin.

"If I'm correct, I have two more missiles I can use." Metal Sonic said, "Should I use one right now?"

"How about... no?" Knuckles said. He swung his leg up and smashed Metal Sonic in the chest with his foot. Metal Sonic stumbled back, and looked up only to see Knuckles' fist coming towards his face. After a few more blows, Knuckles reached out and attempted to rip the arm with the cannon off. Naturally, Metal Sonic struggled to get away, but in the struggle he accidentally fired off a missile right into Eggman's Workshop.

"NO!" Metal Sonic yelled, right after there was a large explosion. He managed to fling Knuckles off, and dashed into the workshop. Knuckles followed, and looked in the work shop to see damaged and burnt machines everywhere, all clouded in smoke.

"What the...?" Knuckles said, as he took a few steps in and felt his foot hit a puddle of what seemed to be water. Suddenly, Metal Sonic dashed through the smoke and grabbed Knuckles by the throat.

"YOU... IDIOT!" Metal Sonic yelled, "The Doctor's projects are RUINED! And it's your fault!"

"My fault?!" Knuckle said, choking out the words, "You're the one that fired the stupid missile!"

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow you to bits right now!" Metal Sonic yelled, holding up the cannon.

"It would make a mess!" Knuckles said. Before Metal Sonic could respond, however, they suddenly heard the sound of coughing coming out of the smoke. Metal Sonic, seeming just as perplexed as Knuckles about who it was, put the echidna down and started walking through the smoke.

"Is it Eggman?" Knuckles asked.

"No." Metal Sonic said, "The voice isn't nearly deep enough."

The two of them walked around for a bit until they found the source of the coughing. Lying next to a shattered tube, which seemed to be the source of the water on the floor, was a jet-black, frail looking hedgehog with incredibly droopy quills. The only part of him that wasn't black was his peach colored muzzle.

"Who... is this?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know... he must be the reason the Doctor forbid any entrance into his workshop for the past few months." Metal Sonic said.

"But what's he doing here?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

"Premature... awakening..." The hedgehog said suddenly, making Knuckles and Metal Sonic back off, "But my mission must be completed..."

"Can't we at least start a fire, future boy?" Rouge asked Sparky. They were still in the forest clearing, and the sun had started to go down.

"Stop calling me that. And no!" Sparky said, "If we start a fire, we'll just draw attention to ourselves. I'm doing my best to shake Charge for as long as I can. He'll get sick of looking for me, and just continue on with his search..."

"Fine, then. But it just seems like your giving him an advantage by hiding..." Rouge said in a huff, "By the way, you never finished answering my questions! Just knowing that your from the future and in a race to get the emeralds doesn't let me know everything!"

"I'm trying to keep as much about myself a secret as I can. Although, I suppose it doesn't really matter at this point." Sparky said, looking depressed, "I'm trying to keep the rules Tails set about time travel in order..."

"Aha! So Tails is the one who sent you back in time!" Rouge said in realization, "I should have known..."

"Doh!" Sparky said, slapping his hands over his mouth, "I goofed up!"

Sparky sighed and slumped down onto the ground.

"It's just been one thing after another." Sparky said, "All right, I admit Tails made the machine I used to travel back... but he didn't really want me to use it since it was still in the testing phases. We both realized I didn't have a choice, though."

"I see..." Rouge said, thinking about how destructive Charge was, "Did something bad happen in your time...?"

Sparky was silent. "Yeah..." He said, "But I won't go into details."

"Ok then..." Rouge said, knowing she made the situation a bit awkward, "Then what about the emeralds? Since when can they do all that weird stuff?"

"Since forever, I guess." Sparky said, sitting up, "But it wasn't discovered until my time. You see, Knuckles found ancient scriptures buried deep in the Mystic Ruins, telling of the chaos emeralds specific powers. He coached Shadow on what to do and say, and Shadow performed the techniques."

Sparky took out the white and blue emeralds out of his bag. "The amount of power the technique has is dependent on how must chaos energy the user can produce. For instance, Shadow using an emerald technique would create a much more powerful result then if I would use one, since I can't harness as much chaos energy as he can."

Rouge was sitting quietly listening, trying to take in every detail. Big and Froggy were also listening quietly from behind a tree, although they weren't quite sure what was going on.

"Each emerald has a specific power and a keyword that activates it." Sparky continued, "The activation keywords are from an ancient echidna language. I only know the rough translations of what they mean, but they tend to describe what the power does."

"So th blue one means something like "grow"?" Rouge asked.

"I guess that's the best description you can give." Sparky said.

"And what's the white one do, exactly...?" Rouge continued to ask.

"The white emerald reverses time around an object, or objects, and returns them to the way they were before." Sparky said.

"I see... I think I get the gist of it." Rouge said, looking at the stars that had started to appear in the sky.

"There's something else that you should know..." Sparky said, "The cause of all this trouble..."

"What...?" Rouge said, looking at Sparky's sudden serious expression.

"The same scriptures that Knuckles found told of something else..." Sparky said, "It told about the eighth Chaos Emerald."

"Eighth emerald...!?" Rouge said suddenly, "There are eight?!"

"Yeah..." Sparky said, "It's very dangerous, and was hidden away... almost all knowledge of it's existence was seemingly erased from history."

"But that's not possible!" Rouge said, "If it's a Chaos Emerald, then Shadow or Eggman would have found it by now!"

"The eighth emerald has a different energy wave than the other Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald." Sparky explained, "It can't be detected like the others. Only a special radar Tails made can detect the emerald correctly. And even then, you need the other seven emeralds in one place for it to even be found. Once the other seven emeralds are gathered, it's almost like the eighth calls out to them..."

"Why is this one so special? And why is it so dangerous?" Rouge said in obvious curiosity.

"I don't know..." Sparky said, "You know how the Master emerald has the power to neutralize the Chaos Emerald's energy? Well, the eighth emerald acts in a similar way... it enhances it. Almost doubling the power provided!"

Rouge looked a bit shocked, and Sparky was trembling a bit.

"That's not all, though..." Sparky said, "Charge used the eighth emerald twice already. After he used it the first time, it almost killed him. But he seemed to gain the same ability as Tails' radar... when he gathers the other seven emeralds, he can tell where the eighth is."

Sparky stood up and looked at the now starry sky.

"That's why I can't let him get the emeralds. I can't let him satisfy his thirst for power!"

"Sonic!" Tails said, "We've been looking for hours!"

"I know, Tails..." Sonic said, "But if Knuckles is in trouble, we have to find Eggman's base and get him out of there!"

"Wait, Sonic! Here he comes!" Tails shouted

Knuckles just showed up, walking over a near by hill.

"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled out, "You ok?!"

"Yeah, I'm good!" He said as he walked up, "I had an encounter with Metal Sonic, but I trashed him AND Eggman's base!"

"Good to hear..." Sonic said, looking at Knuckles' neck. He noticed that the shard of the Master Emerald was missing.

"What are you looking at?" Knuckles asked, puzzled.

"Say, Knuckles..." Sonic said, "Where's the emerald shard that was around your neck?"

"Oh... I must have lost it." Knuckles said.

"You're unusually calm about that..." Sonic said.

"Well, It's ok, really... I mean, I'm a treasure hunter! I can find it easily." Knuckles said, "Well, we have a job to do, right? Let's go..."

Shadow had been glaring at Knuckles ever sense he came close.

"What's your problem?" Knuckles asked.

"Something doesn't seem right." Shadow said, "Are you sure nothing else happened in Eggman's base?"

"What are you talking about?" Knuckles said, "I told you, I trashed the place and left! Nothing else happened."

"Oh really?" Shadow said, "Then why are your eyes yellow?"

"Hey, yeah!" Tails said, "You're eyes aren't normally that color!"

"Yeah!" Sonic yelled, "And you don't give a hoot about the Master Emerald shard, either! Who are you?!"

"What are you talking about?!" Knuckles said, backing off from the group of suspicious companions, "I'm me! I'm Knuckles!"

"We'll see about that!" Sonic said, "If you're Knuckles, then you should have no trouble keeping up with us in a fight!"

As the fight commenced, it seemed like Sonic, Shadow, and Tails' assumptions were wrong. Every move the supposed impostor made was identical to what Knuckles would do. All of his moves, however, lacked the same power Knuckles would have had. Eventually, "Knuckles" fell to the ground in defeat. Sonic and the other's suspicions were then confirmed when the impostor turned black, and changed shape. The stranger got up, and in front of them was a jet black hedgehog with droopy quills, a peach muzzle, and piercing yellow eyes.

"It seems like my new toy has been exposed!" Came Eggman's voice. A floating monitor with Eggman's face on flew up behind the strange hedgehog, "Sorry I can't be there in person. I'm too busy cleaning up the mess that echidna left!"

"Eggman!" Sonic yelled, "What did you do with Knuckles!?"

"He's locked safely away in my prison!" Eggman said, "But enough about him! Let me properly introduce you to my new friend! His name is Circuit! You could say he's the final result of my research with the Shadow androids!"

"The Shadow androids...?" Shadow said. Bad memories had obviously been stirred up.

"Yes! Circuit is the perfect combination of machine and living tissue!" Eggman said triumphantly, "And his skills are perfect! Even though he was woken up during the final stages of his development, he still can out class you in anyway!"

"Oh yeah?" Sonic said, "I don't think so! You saw it, the three of us beat him!"

"Oh ho! Maybe so..." Eggman said, sneering, "But now, he has a new surprise for you!"

Circuit stood up straight and lifted his hand up.

"Chaos..."

"What?!" Shadow yelled.

"SPEAR!" Circuit yelled, as he launch a wave of energy at the group. They scattered in different directions, Tails taking off into the air.

"What was that all about?!" Tails yelled out. Suddenly there was a rush of wind beside him. Tails turned his head to see an exact double of himself flying next to him, the only difference being his piercing yellow eyes.

The double kicked Tails in the back, sending flying downwards. When Tails hit the ground, the double changed back into Circuit and landed on him.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled. But before he could do anything, Cicuit had already run over and punched Sonic at top speed.

"HA HA!" Eggman laughed, "You don't stand a chance! Once Circuit touches you, now only can he copy you appearance and voice, but he can also copy your thoughts and take one of your special skills! Knuckles' strength, Sonic's speed... they're all there!"

"So he only has my Chaos Spear then...?" Shadow asked.

"What's it to you...?" Eggman said.

Shadow suddenly took out the Green Chaos emerald. "CHAOS CONTROL!"

No matter how fast Circuit could move, he couldn't get away from Shadow attacking while using Chaos Control.

Shadow stopped attacking, and left a battered Circuit on the ground.

"No matter how much he copies, his skills are weak!" Shadow said, "Since he was woken up early, he's not nearly as powerful as you thought, right?"

"Argh! So you saw through that, huh?!" Eggman yelled, "Well, it's true. Being woken up early has limited his power! But it doesn't matter! With the proper training, he'll be able to stop any of you!"

"He's right, you know..." Came a voice from behind Sonic's group. They turned around to see Charge standing behind them.

"What?! Where did you come from?!" Sonic said.

"Masking my presence is one of my skills." Charge said, walking over to Circuit. He looked down at Circuit, "I know this hedgehog will become powerful... but he won't be on your side, Doctor."

"What?! Circuit is my creation! In a way, I'm his father! He'll never turn against me!" Eggman yelled out.

"Metal Sonic is your creation too, isn't he?" Charge said, not looking up, "And he betrayed you... if a machine can betray you, than certainly a being with living tissue can too..."

Charge picked up Circuit and got him to his feet. Circuit lazily and painfully opened up his eyes to stare at Charge.

"Go ahead." Charge said, "Copy my... "data". Then you'll have my power. You'll know my thoughts, and you'll know why I'm kind to you..."

Circuit just stared at Charge for a moment. After a little while, he closed his eyes, grabbed Charge's hand, and began to copy.

"Sonic, shouldn't we do something?" Tails asked.

"I wanna see where this is going..." Sonic said, too curious about what was going on to stop it.

Circuit's eyes suddenly shot open. He let go of Charge's hand and stumbled backwards, staring up at charge with his mouth open. Charge just smiled.

"Doctor..." Circuit suddenly said, "I suggest we return to base for now."

"Perhaps you're right," Eggman said, "I need to rework things a bit. I'll be back, Sonic! You can count on it!"

Circuit jumped back and landed on Eggman's monitor, and the two flew off.

"Now, for the real reason I came here..." Charge said, his smile vanishing, "I'll be taking that Chaos Emerald, Shadow."

"What?!" Shadow said, "Sonic, how does this guy know who I am?"

"I don't know..." Sonic said, "Me and Knuckles met him on Angel Island. He recognized us, too..."

"I know who you are perfectly." Charge said, "I know your past... your future. And I know how one of you meets your end..."

"What?!" Sonic yelled. Charge suddenly vanished and appeared in front of Tails.

"I wonder..." Charge said, smirking at the fox, "If I kill you now, will I disappear from this time?"

"Get away from him!" Sonic yelled. He dashed up and spun into Charge's side, knocking him to the ground.

"I've really started to dislike this time..." Charges said, "Everyone here is so rude... delaying the inevitable. Just give me the emeralds. They're destined to belong to me, anyway!"

"There's no way you're getting them!" Sonic said, as he, Shadow, and Tails prepared to fight.

"Hmph." Charge scowled, "I admit, you have courage, trying to fight a battle you can't win... or is it stupidity? I'm not sure..."

"What?!" Sonic yelled, "This guys is seriously ticking me off!"

"I'll fight you if you really want me too... but something is bothering me." Charge said, "How come I couldn't feel the presence of the emerald your holding, Shadow? I would have had no idea it was here unless you activated it..."

"What do you mean?" Shadow said, looking at the emerald in his hand.

"Tell me, Shadow..." Charge said, "Did you know I had three emeralds with me right now?"

"What?! Three?!" Shadow yelled, "That's impossible! The emerald in my hand is the only one within miles of here!"

"Ho ho! I see..." Charge laughed, "But get a load of this!"

Three emeralds suddenly floated out from behind Charge; red, light blue... and green.

"What the heck!?" Tails yelled, "Two green Chaos Emeralds?!"

The group was left stunned. What exactly was going on?


	3. Part 3

Sparky looked upwards at the glowing ball of light that was his brother. Floating above the ruined city, Charge had manged to get all eight Chaos Emeralds, and was laying ruin on everything he could see. With all eight emeralds floating around him, Charge no longer looked like his former self. With all his quills sticking up, his once purple fur had turned white with a light purple tint, his blue stripes extending all the way down his spikes to his face. His eyes no longer had pupils or irises; they were just blank white slates.

"THIS! THIS IS ULTIMATE POWER!" Charge yelled out, laughing manically, "This surge of strength! I'll finally correct all the wrongs! I'll reshape the world in my image! I'll make my own paradise! I will rule! NO ONE CAN STOP ME! NO ONE CAN STOP A GOD!"

"We can't let that happen!" A voice yelled out. Charge looked down, to see Sonic running straight up a building that had the top partially blown off, carrying Sparky on his back.

"You really think you can stop me?!" Charge yelled. He launched a large beam at the base of the building. As the beam hit and the building started to violently shake, Sonic and Sparky reached the top of the building.

"W-what do we do now!?" Sparky yelled out to Sonic in a panic.

"You gotta think of something quick!" Sonic yelled back, grabbing Sparky around the wrists "We might not get a second shot at this!"

"WAH!" Sparky yelled, as Sonic started swinging him around in a spin-dash like fashion at top speed. After a short moment, Sonic threw Sparky in Charge's direction, and the building starting to collapse under his feet. Sparky, doing his best to think fast, grabbed onto Charge upon reaching him.

"WHAT?! GET OFF!" Charge yelled, trying to shake Sparky loose. Sparky did his best to hold on, while at the same time reaching out for one of the emeralds. He grabbed the orange Chaos Emerald and was hit with a surge of energy. He then did the first thing that came to mind.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

All eight emeralds vanished, Charge reverted back to normal, and the two brothers went plummeting towards the ground.

As they hit the ground, there was a flash of light, and Sparky suddenly found himself running to Tail's workshop. He looked through the blown open door. The time gate was open and active, And Charge was standing in the middle or the room, holding Tails up by the collar of his lab coat.

"Charge?!" Sparky yelled, "What are you doing!?"

"I can't feel the emeralds anymore, Sparky..." Charge said, "I don't know what you did with them, but they aren't here... So I thought, If I can't find them now... why not try a different time period?!"

Charge had a sinister smile on his face. Tails was doing his best to try to get free.

"He tried to stop me." Charge said, "So I decided to use his help to give you a going away present. SAY GOOD BYE TO TAILS, SPARKY!"

"NOOO!" Sparky yelled, shooting up out of a sleeping position. He looked around in the darkness. He saw he was still in the forest clearing with Rouge, who looked like she had been woken up by his scream. It had been a dream; a dream making him relive past events.

"What's your problem?" Rogue said sleepily, "Ugh, why am I even bothering staying here..."

"I-I'm sorry..." Sparky said, breathing heavily and sweating a bit, "I had a nightma-"

Sparky stopped in mid sentence, has he stood up, looking around frantically.

"What now?!" Rouge said, getting up, too.

"A Chaos Emerald!" Sparky said, "I can feel one near by! Like it's moving towards us!"

So, the two started wandering around the woods, in the direction of the Chaos Emerald.

"I was worried about you because of your foot..." Rouge said, "But after we find the emerald, I'm taking off, got i-"

Sparky suddenly grabbed Rouge and ducked behind a large tree with her.

"What do you think you-!"

"Shh!" Sparky told Rouge to be silent. They both could hear voices and foot steps approaching from a distance.

"... and with this, we can set up a trap!" Came a voice as it got closer, "Will be able to catch those thieves, get out reward, and finally be able to pay the rent!"

"Gee, Vector! You sure are smart!" Came a second, high pitched voice. Sparky recognized the voices now. It was Team Chaotix, who had recently woken up from the fight with Sparky, and had preceded to continue their search for the emerald thieves.

"It's most fortunate the we came across the first emerald," said Espio, "But it's incredible that we managed to find a second as well!"

"This way, we can set up TWO traps and catch both of them!" Vector said confidently.

"What...?" Sparky said quietly to himself.

"What's wrong?" Rouge whispered.

"They say they have two..." Sparky replied, "But I can only feel one!"

"Vector..." Espio said, suddenly looking around cautiously, "I believe we are begin watched..."

"Yeah, I'm getting that feeling, too!" Vector said.

"Do you think it's one of the thieves, Vector?" Charmy asked curiously.

"I don't know..." Vector said, peering around, "But I got a feeling whoever it is is REAL close..."

Vector, naturally, was standing directly in front of the tree Sparky and Rouge were hiding behind.

"Ugh, let me take care of them..." Rouge said as she got up and walked out from behind the tree, "Hey boys! Long time no see!"

"So it WAS a thief! Just not the on we're looking for!" Vector said, clenching his fist.

"What are you up too?" Espio said, still on guard.

"What makes you think I'm up to anything?" Rouge asked innocently, "I was just taking a stroll, when I noticed you walking by, talking about Chaos Emeralds! And I was just wondering... if I could have a look?"

The team of detectives looked at each other about the situation. Sparky was peering out from behind the tree.

"Well..." Vector said, "I suppose if it's just a look, you can see... but no touching!"

Vector took out the two emeralds. There were the yellow and purple Chaos Emeralds in his hands. Sparky focused his mind, but realized he couldn't feel any kind of energy coming from the purple emerald. It was almost like it was a glass replica, rather than a real chaos emerald. In order to see what was going on, Sparky decided it was time to grab those emeralds and go.

He lept out from behind the tree, diving towards Vector, only to be intercepted by Espio. The two locked fists, but Espio easily knocked Sparky back.

"I had a feeling you were near by!" Espio said, a giant shuriken in each hand, "You're not getting away this time!"

"So it was a trick!" Vector yelled, "Charmy! Don't let her get away!"

"Gotcha! EEYAH!" Charmy said, taking a dive at Rouge with his stinger pointed outwards. However, Charmy was swatted back with a fishing pole, as Big the cat seemingly came out of nowhere to help.

"WHAT!?" Vector yelled, "You're on his side, too!?"

"Uh, I'm not sure what's going on!" Big said, seemingly confused, "But from what I've heard, That green fella needs those emeralds more than you!"

"So you want to fight, huh!?" Vector said, "Well you got me mad, SO LET'S GO!"

"YEAH! Let's rock!" Charmy yelled, obviously pumped up and ready to fight.

So the fight commenced; Sparky against Espio, Rouge against Charmy, and Big against Vector. In the confusion of the fight, Big managed to knock Vector over, Causing him to drop the emeralds. Batting them away with his fishing pole, Big knocked them towards Sparky, who grabbed them and took off as fast as he could.

"Rouge, Big! Thanks a lot!" Sparky said, running off, "I'll be sure to return the favor!"

"AFTER HIM!" Vector yelled, infuriated that they failed to capture their target again.

"Wait!" Rouge yelled out, "He's not a bad guy!"

"Why should we trust you?" Espio asked threateningly.

"Just try to believe me!" Rouge said, "I'll tell you everything he told me!"

* * *

"Eugh..." Groaned Knuckles, rubbing his head, "Where am I...?"

"You're in a prison cell..." Came Metal Sonic's voice, "And I'm in here with you for letting you run amok..."

"What!?" Knuckles said, examining his surroundings. He was indeed in a prison cell, with what seemed to be a force field blocking his escape. His Master Emerald shard was missing, and he didn't see Metal Sonic anywhere.

"Where are you?" Knuckles asked, not wanting to be attacked.

"...down here..."

Knuckles looked down in the corner. There was Metal Sonic's detached head, back in normal form, talking to Knuckles. Of course, Knuckles couldn't help but burst out into laughter.

"What happened to you?" Knuckles said, holding back his laughs.

"When the doctor's creation woke up, It didn't know who was an enemy and who wasn't." Metal Sonic explained, "So it attacked both of us, knocking my head off in the process. I'm lucky to still be functioning."

"OH YEAH!" Knuckles yelled out, "That jerk knocked me out! I need to return the favor... how do I get out of here?"

"There is a way to override the force field." Metal Sonic said, "But why should I help you? We're enemies, after all."

"Well, if you help me get out, I'll help you find your body!" Knuckles said, "How's that sound?"

"The doctor will eventually come and reattach it." Metal Sonic said.

"What makes you think he's going too?" Knuckles said, "He did throw you in here with me!"

Metal Sonic thought to himself for a moment. "You have a point, echidna." he said, "Perhaps you aren't as incompetent as I thought."

"Incompetent...?" Knuckles pondered, "What's that exactly mean, anyway?"

"Stupid."

"HEY!"

"But what makes you think I should trust you, anyway?" Metal Sonic said, bypassing Knuckles' complaint.

"I don't go back on my word!" Knuckles said, "Besides, I need to get out of here. I owe payback to two jerks now!"

"...fine. For now, we'll join forces." Metal Sonic said, "But as soon as I have my body back and you're out of the base, we're enemies again."

"Fine by me." Knuckles said, "But how do you plan to get us out of here?"

"Hold me up to where the security panel is." Metal Sonic said, "I'll see if I can achieve a wireless link with it and override the lock on the cell."

"Uh, sure." Knuckles said. He picked up Metal Sonic's head, and brought over to a numbered panel, which was separated from them by the force field. After a series of beeps and clicks coming from the panel, the forcefield locking them in went down.

"All right!" Knuckles said, stepping out of the cell.

"Now remember the deal." Metal Sonic said, "We must find my body, then you leave as soon as possible. It's most likely been brought to the Robot Repair shop on the bottom level."

"Bottom level? How big is this place, anyway?" Knuckles asked.

"The answer to that question will remain unknown." Metal Sonic said, "I have no intention of letting you know any more about this base than you have too. My loyalty still lies with the Doctor."

"Yeah, yeah, I gotcha." Knuckles said, "Well, tell me where to go, at least."

"...down. That's the direction the bottom level of a building usually is in." Metal Sonic said.

"Oh, HA HA." Knuckles said. The two continued to bicker all the way to the down through the levels of Eggman's base, which was quite large and seemed to go down forever. But eventually, they reached the bottom level and the Robot Repair shop. They were surprised to see, however, that the rather large room had been almost entirely cleaned out, aside for a few piles of broken down parts scattered along the sides of the room.

"Some repair shop..." Knuckles said, wandering into the room.

"I don't understand..." Metal Sonic said, "What happened..."

"Well, well..." came Dr. Eggman's voice, "Metal Sonic, I can't believe you would stoop as low to seek help from that echidna."

"Doctor!" Metal Sonic said, doing his best to look around, "I was simply looking for my body!"

"Yes, and then you were going to let him go!" Eggman's voice came, as a hatch on the other side of the room started to open.

"Nonsense!" Metal Sonic said, "I would never actually allow a prisoner to escape!"

"WHAT!?" Knuckles yelled, looking away from the hatch and down at Metal Sonic's head, "You little piece of trash!" Knuckles then proceeded to toss Metal Sonic's head into a pile of robot parts.

"Well, regardless of that, this still gives me a chance to properly punish YOU, Knuckles, for coming into my base uninvited!" Eggman said, as the hatch finished opening. Out walked Eggman in a rather large robot suit that looked like his body, only much more physically toned. The only part of Eggman visible was his head at the top of the robot, covered by a glass dome. Sitting on the robot's shoulder was Circuit, prepared to assist his master.

"Let's see how you fare against the Egg-Suit Battle Machine!" Eggman said from the top of the robot, "But you can just call it the Egg Mech!"

"For all I care, you can call it a trash heap!" Knuckles said, "It won't beat me!"

"We'll see about that!" Eggman said, "Circuit, stand aside for now! I doubt I'll need you for this!"

"Yes, Doctor..." Circuit said. He got down from the robot's shoulder, and walked over to the junk pile Metal Sonic's head was in.

"All right, Eggman!" Knuckles said with a smile on his face, "Let's see who packs a bigger punch!"

"Ha! Let me wipe that smile off your face!" Eggman yelled, "PERMINENTLY!"

And so, the battle commenced. The Egg Mech was surprisingly quick, and Knuckles had trouble avoiding it's punches and kicks, taking a few hard blows. But after a while, Knuckles got the best of Eggman. After a strong punch to the ground, the Egg Mech's fist got caught in the smashed floor. Knuckles took this opportunity to attack. He ran up the Egg Mech's arm to the dome Eggman's head was in. With one strong punch, Knuckles broke open dome and hit Eggman in the face, making him lose control of the Egg Mech. The Egg Mech toppled over and smashed to the ground.

"H-How DARE you strike me!" Eggman yelled as the front of the Egg Mech opened. Eggman stumbled out and said, "Circuit! Finish him off! There should be no trouble in that!"

As Eggman took off out of the room, Circuit walked over and glared at Knuckles. Knuckles knew that since he took some serious blows in the previous fight, he might not be able to beat Circuit if he came full force.

"I'm not going to fight you." Circuit said.

"Huh?" Knuckles said, "Why not? I'm sure I could beat you anyway!"

"I want to fight you when you're at full strength." Circuit said, "It wouldn't be a fair fight."

"Since when does anything made by Eggman want a fair fight?" Knuckles asked, "Don't pity me!"

"...since I copied you before," Charge said, "I have your memories."

"Copied? Memories? What are you talking about?" Knuckles said, getting angry.

"To put it simply, I'm a shape shifter." Circuit explained, "When I came in contact with you before, I took a sample of your DNA, and now I can take a form similar you yours. In addition, I also can use your strength to some degree, and I also read your memories."

"What does this have to do with anything?" Knuckles asked.

"I know you came in contact with a purple hedgehog named Charge." Circuit said.

"Yeah?! What about him!?" Knuckles said, angry at the thought of him.

"I've met him too, and did the same thing to him that I did to you. I copied him..." Circuit said, "From his memories, I learned something very interesting... and I've had time to think about what I learned."

Knuckles was getting impatient with Circuit by this point. He was tapping his foot on the ground and restraining himself from letting his fists fly.

"I've decided that if you ever bring harm to Charge, or another called Sparky..." Circuit said, "I won't be very forgiving."

"What? Why?" Knuckles asked.

"I really have no reason to tell you anything further, and I suggest you leave. But before you go, I believe this is yours." Circuit tossed the Master Emerald shard and Knuckles caught it, "I was planning on giving it to the Doctor, but it seems rather important to you. Now, please leave. The elevator in the previous room should be able to take you all the way to the surface."

Circuit fished Metal Sonic's head out of the pile of junk, and proceeded to walk out of the room. Knuckles was confused about what was happening, but he decided not pursue the matter any further and made his was to the elevator. He needed to find Sonic and the group to tell them what happened.

"The Doctor won't forgive you for letting him go." Metal Sonic said.

"I know." Circuit replied, "But after my encounters, I know a lot..."

* * *

"Face it, Charge!" Sonic said, "You don't stand a chance against all three of us!"

Sonic, Tails, and Shadow had all begun to fight Charge for the Emeralds, and some answers. Even though Charge was strong, he was still no match in a 3-on-1 fight.

"Now I think it's time you answered some questions!" Shadow said, "Just who are you? Why are you after the Emeralds, and why are there two green emeralds?"

"I really have no idea why there are two green emeralds..." Charge said, staggering as he got up, "And I really have no intention of telling you anything about me! You're just all pathetic worms, getting in the way of MY destiny!"

"Sorry, pal! But your destiny is put on hold!" Sonic said.

"We'll never let you get all the emeralds!" Tails said, "You should just behave!"

"Sorry, I've never been one to follow the rules!" Charge said, holding up his green emerald.

"What are you doing?!" Shadow said.

"HSIRMP!" Charge yelled, as a green beam fired out of the emerald. Shadow and Sonic dodged it, but the beam hit Tails, and he seemed to vanish on the spot.

"Tails!?" Sonic yelled, looking around. He turned to Charge and said, "What have you done to him?!"

But, Charge already seemed to be getting ready to attack again. Shadow and Sonic tried to stop him, but they found a mysterious force pushing them backwards.

"What the... what's going on?!" Shadow yelled, "We can't get near him!"

"I suppose I should explain...!" Charge said quietly, straining to generate this much strength and talk at the same time. "Me and my brother learned a special ability from our father; the ability to mix Chaos Energy with electricity itself! As a result, we can both can use magnetic powers to some degree. My brother attracts things... while I repel them!"

With one final surge of energy, Charge pushed Sonic and Shadow away and into the air, flinging them quite a distance.

"Ah... hah..." Charge gasped for air, "I didn't expect to be overwhelmed... I hate using that technique. It's so pitiful to run away... but I have no choice. I must find the rest of the emeralds... MY emeralds!"

Charge took off at a quick stagger for a hiding spot until he recovered. Determined as ever to get the Emeralds, he wondered about why there were two green emeralds. It would be interesting if he could obtain a ninth emerald after he collected the necessary eight.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tails, who seemed to have vanished, had also been flung by Charge's attack.

"OOF!" Tails yelled as he hit the ground with a thud. He looked up, and was taken by surprise by his surroundings. A blade of grass was right next to him; and it was nearly three times his size!

"Whoa! What's going on!?" Tails said, "Why is everything so big?! Or maybe... I'm just small?! When I got hit by that attack Charge used, it must have shrunk me! But since when can the chaos emeralds do that?"

Tails realized he wasn't going to get any answers by sitting around; nor was he going to get any help. He decided to go off and look for Sonic and Shadow. Of course, what was just a few feet for anyone else was a considerable distance for him. However, he eventually found himself in the woods.

"Uh... no luck." Tails said to himself, "Am I gonna be stuck like this...?"

Tails sat down and took a look around. The trees themselves look miles tall. But while sitting in the quiet forest, he heard a strange noise.

"That sounds like... slithering?" Tails turned around to see a garter snake slithering towards him, it's tongue slipping in and out of it's mouth. While normally harmless, Tails' new size made this creature a very dangerous threat.

"U-um, Your just going to help me, right?" Tails said with his voice quivering. This was answered with the snake lunging towards him. The snake was obviously more interested in a meal than helping out our furry hero.

Doing his best to avoid being eaten, Tails managed to fight off the snake for a while. But he started to get worn out, and the snake had managed to corner him. It seemed like Tails was going to become snake food, when...

"Hey! Get away from him!" said a voice, as a green hedgehog came running up and kicked the snake away. The snake, upon hitting the ground, hissed in his direction and quickly slithered away.

"Are you okay, Tails?!" The hedgehog said, as he began to rummage through his bag.

"I'm fine, thanks!" Tails said to the stranger, incredibly thankful that he was saved from being another creature's lunch.

"Charge must have done this to you, huh? You know, the whole shrinking thing?" Sparky said as he took out the white Chaos Emerald from his bag.

"A Chaos emerald? Where did you get that..." Tails pondered.

"Ivevihy!" Sparky said, pointing the emerald at tails. Tails shined white for a short while, and gradually returned to he original size. Tails looked around in amazement, and looked harder at Sparky. He suddenly recalled an image: right before he passed out in his destroyed workshop, he caught a glimps of the culprits face as he dashed into the room.

"AH!" Tails yelled, backing up, "You're the one who blew up my workshop!"

"Gah!" Sparky said in shock, "So you saw me... look, I'm REALLY sorry about that! With you, Sonic, AND Shadow in there, there was no other way to get the emerald! I needed to cause a really big distraction and I... kind of did that without thinking to much. It was only a matter of time before Shadow realized I was there anyway, since I had a Chaos Emerald on me and everything..."

"Wait! Calm down!" Tails said, "First of all, tell me what's going on! I feel like I'm missing a lot of the details, here."

"Well... you guys are already involved, so I guess there isn't any point to hiding my secret." Sparky said, "Even though I'll be breaking rules, I really need all the allies I can get."

Sparky started walking with Tails, and he explained everything he told Rouge. The fact that he was from the future, and eighth emerald, and their powers.

"This is a lot to take in!" Tails said, "Although time travel is nothing new to us; we met a hedgehog named Silver once who came from the future!"

"I remember hearing stories about him." Sparky said, "But he's from a time much farther into the future than mine.

"And by the way, you said I made the time machine you used?" Tails asked.

"Yeah! It all started with theories about Chaos Control and..." Sparky began.

"Ah! Don't tell me!" Tails interrupted, "I want to figure out these things on my own!"

"Oh! Sorry!" Sparky said, "I tend to babble when I get excited!"

"That's alright! I do the same thing!" Tails said.

"Heh... oh! Tails!" Sparky suddenly said, "Do you think you could help me with something?"

"Well, you're intentions seem a lot different than Charge's, so sure!" Tails said.

"I need to figure something out..." Sparky said, holding out the yellow and purple emeralds, "I got got these two emeralds from the team Chaotix before, but there's a problem... I can't feel any energy coming from the purple emerald at all! It's like I'm just holding a rock!"

"That is strange... but we encountered the same problem!" Tails said, "Shadow had an emerald and Charge had three, and we couldn't detect each other's emeralds! But our story is a bit more odd; there were two green chaos emeralds!"

"What?!" Sparky said in surprise, "Two of them? That can't be right!"

"Don't worry, we'll figure this all out!" Tails said confidently, "Let's go back to my workshop! I'm sure there's some working equipment still there that we can use!"

Tails took off in the direction of the workshop. Sparky stood there, thinking quite seriously about the situation. Had he and Charge coming to the past somehow caused these problems with the emeralds, and even duplicating one? Were there perhaps copies of all the emeralds? Sparky stared at the rising sun, with jumbled up thoughts. He snapped out of his trace-like thinking when Tails called out to him, and began to make his way across the fields towards Tails' workshop.

* * *

"Hah...hah..." Knuckles panted, resting under a tree, "Eggman took a lot more out of me than I thought... but at least I'm far away from that base. But what was up with that Circuit guy..."

Knuckles' pondering was interrupted, though, by Shadow smashing into the tree above him, and then falling down onto his head.

"Nice of you to drop in..." Knuckles said, tossing the hedgehog aside, "What happened to you."

"That purple hedgehog is what happened to me!" Shadow complained, dusting himself off, "That coward Charge pulled a dirty trick and ran away... what's your story? You look a bit banged up."

Knuckles and Shadow traded stories of their encounters.

"Two green emeralds!" Knuckles exclaimed, "How's that possible?"

"I'm not sure..." Shadow said, crossing his arms, "But I couldn't feel any energy coming from any of the emeralds he had. Now that I think about it, I couldn't feel any energy coming from the emerald Tails had in his workshop, either. I knew it was there by chance... I figured I just wasn't focusing enough."

"This just keeps getting weirder..." Knuckles said, "And I still don't get why that Circuit guy is so protective of Charge and... whoever Sparky is."

"I assume 'Sparky' might be the other emerald thief." Shadow said, "The two don't seem to be on the friendliest of terms, but both are still threats.

"Well, what do we do now?" Knuckles exclaimed.

"We should find the others." Shadow said, "We might have strength in numbers."

"Weird. You're not usually one for teamwork..." Knuckles said with a smirk.

"Hmph." Shadow scowled, "We should go to Tails workshop first... I'm feeling traces of chaos energy heading towards that area."

"I'm getting that feeling too..." Knuckles said, "Call it a treasure hunters' instinct."

The two took off in the direction of the ruined workshop, not noticing small security robot watching them very closely.

* * *

At the other end of the security feed was Eggman, watching their every move.

"I still haven't found the identity of whoever Sonic was chasing, and that purple hedgehog has made things even more complicated!" Eggman exclaimed, "If I follow them long enough, I'm sure to find out though... and you..."

Eggman turned around in his chair to look at Circuit, who was standing silently and trying not to make eye contact.

"I expected better from you." Eggman scolded, "We don't 'play fair' in the my army! If you see a chance to take out your enemy, you use it! Don't give them a chance to recover! It's your mission, after all! You understand me?"

"Yes, Doctor..." Circuit said, still not making eye contact.

"Obviously you don't." Eggman said, quite unhappily. He then tapped a button on a control panel, which was then followed by Circuit being violently electrocuted.

"I've learned from my past mistakes." Eggman said, "To prevent you from rebelling like Metal Sonic did, I built a shock-based punishment system right into you. Remember, you ARE part machine."

"Ugh..." Circuit said trying his best to stay standing.

"Should you disobey my orders again, you'll receive more shocks." Eggman said, "Each one will get stronger than the last. There will only be so much you can take before you're... eliminated, though."

The recently reconstructed Metal Sonic was watching the event take place. He had the same system installed in him to keep him in line, so he knew what Charge was going through.

"Now. You are to follow my orders very carefully." Eggman said, folding his hands underneath his chin, "It's only a matter of time before one of them notices the robot. If it's destroyed, you are to gather as much info as you can by any means necessary. And you are to fight full force! No mercy! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Doctor..." Circuit said, regaining his balance. He walked out of the room and made his way towards an exit. "I must follow my mission to destroy the doctors enemies," Circuit said to himself, "But at the same time, I don't want to cause harm... and I still have to protect them. What if it comes to fighting those two...? Sparky and Charge..."

Circuit took the elevator up and out of the base, fighting some personal battles as well as physical ones. What makes the two emerald thieves so special? Why must Circuit protect them? Only time will tell...


	4. Part 4

"Ooooh... my aching head..." Sonic moaned. When he was flung away by Charge, he smacked his head and fell unconscious. "Where am I...?" Sonic said, looking around. His vision was a little blurry, but he heard various clicks and clanks, and smelt smoke and ash. "Is this... Tails' workshop?"

"Hey, Tails! He's awake!" said a voice. Sonic sat up and shook his head. His vision cleared a bit and he looked around. Yes, it was Tails' workshop all right: fire damage and all. He was in a cot in the corner and had a bandage on his head, and sitting next to him was a green hedgehog that looked oddly familiar.

"Whoa, what happened to me... Tails? You ok?" Sonic said.

"I'm fine, thanks to Sparky here!" Tails said, "We found you here when we arrived! You must of landed here after Charge flung us all away."

"You hit your head pretty hard, but I don't think it's anything serious." Sparky explained.

"So you're Sparky?" Sonic said, getting up off the cot, "Nice to meet you! I'm Sonic!"

"I know!" Sparky said, extending his hand out for a hand shake.

"So, Is stealing Chaos Emeralds a hobby of yours?" Sonic asked.

"I... what?" Sparky asked, puzzled.

"You can't fool me! I know who you are." Sonic said, "When you attacked the workshop, I got a pretty good look at you before you ran away!"

"Sonic! Don't fight, he's on our side!" Tails yelled, running over from the tools he was sifting through.

"I have a feeling you explained yourself to Tails already, and you can explain yourself to ME later." Sonic said, "If Tails trusts you, I suppose I should too. But I've got a score to settle with you!"

"A score? What are you talking about?" Sparky said, still very puzzled.

"You were the one I was chasing through the fields right?" Sonic said, "Well when you got away, I'd say it was luck! Me and you are gonna have a race along Emerald Coast! Then we'll be set!"

"Sounds like fun." Came Shadow's voice. He and Knuckles had arrived a moment ago. "I wouldn't mind seeing what he's made of, myself..."

"Sorry, Shadow!" Sonic said, a competitive fire burning in his eyes, "But this is between me and greenie over here!"

"A race is fine..." Sparky said, looking eager to come up with an excuse, "But don't we have more important things to worry about? Besides, the only way to get to Emerald Coast is through Station Square! And I can't just go into the city... I'm wanted, remember?"

"Don't know if you realize, but at this point in time, there isn't much of Station Square left!" Sonic commented, "Perfect Chaos made sure of that!"

"But there are still people living in the area, Sonic!" Knuckles said, "We can't be too careful!"

"Fine, we'll find another way in!" Sonic complained, his mood seriously dampened. Sonic looked around, and eyed the fire damaged Tornado. Then he got a big smile on his face.

Not too long later, The Tornado was flying over Emerald Coast. Tails was piloting, while Sonic was standing on one end of the wings, and Sparky was standing on the the other.

"Okay Tails, fly us down!" Shouted Sonic over the roar of the propeller. Sparky, who was scared out of his mind from standing on the wing of a plane, took one last nervous gulp.

Tails flew down, and once they were low enough, the two hedgehogs jumped off and took off down the beach. However, right off the bat, it was obvious: while Sparky had speed, he was no match for a completely serious Sonic.

"So, Sparky? You're not as fast as I thought!" Sonic said, avoiding debris from Station Square that was never cleaned up.

"That's cause I was using the Emeralds to help me get away from you before!" Sparky explained, sliding under a partially fallen-down tree, "I guess I need to step up my game, huh?"

If you want to keep up with me, you'll have to!" Sonic, suddenly putting on a burst of speed and dashing across the water ahead.

Sonic used as much speed as he could, hopping from one patch of sand to another and dashing across the waves, and passing by more debris that nobody bothered to pick up. Being comfortably ahead, he even took the time to look at a rather large crashed boat as he ran by.

Sonic whistled at the amount of damage Chaos left behind after all this time. "You would think they would have cleaned more of this up by now!" He said to himself. However, after looking again at the boat he realized something: Sparky was effortlessly running on the boat's side, and using is as a shortcut to get back to the main beach before Sonic.

"What the heck!?" Sonic said, as Sparky landed on the beach ahead of him.

"It took a while to get across that debris..." Sparky called out, running away, "But having powers over magnetism can help a guy out, huh?"

"Heh, clever!" Sonic said, as his foot hit the expanse of sand ahead, "But your magnet powers aren't going to help out forever!" Sonic raced ahead again, and quickly started to catch up.

* * *

Meanwhile, Knuckles and Shadow were waiting at the finish line of the race.

"This is fun and all, bit it's really getting us nowhere." Knuckles said, "We should be out after Charge right now!"

Shadow said nothing, waiting for the race to finish. It seemed that he really wanted to see the outcome.

Knuckles proceeded to look around the beach and at all the rubble that was never removed. But then out of the corner of his eye, he could swear he saw movement in a nearby tree. He was originally going to pass it off as the wind, until he caught of glimpse of something shiny. He pretended not to notice, and went over to pick up a rock. After tossing it into the air a couple of times, he quickly flung it in the direction of the tree, knocking a robot out of his hiding place.

"Shadow!" Knuckles said, "Looks like someone's been spying on us! And I bet you I know who!"

As the security robot got up off the ground and flew towards the city in an attempt to escape, Shadow noticed more rustling.

"Don't let your guard down!" Shadow shouted, "There's someone else here!"

Out of the bushes came a blur, and tackled Shadow to the ground. Shadow looked up sand saw a familiar purple sight.

"It's Charge!" Knuckles said, putting up his fists.

"No, look at his eyes!" Shadow said, looking at the piercing, yellow eyed stare coming from Charge, "It's that shape shifter the Doctor created! He's trying to confuse-"

But Shadow's sentence was cut off from suddenly being jabbed in the back by Circuit's foot.

"That was Chaos Control! It looks like that's what you copied from Charge..." Shadow said, "But you're still slow!"

Circuit warped and attacked again, but this time Shadow blocked it.

"Let me show you how it's done!" Shadow said. Both of them used Chaos Control, and after a few seconds of warp-speed fighting, Circuit reappeared in his normal form, and Shadow quickly followed. Exhausted, Circuit shape-shifted into tails and took off towards the city in the distance.

"We have to go after him!" Knuckles said, "His little attack let that robot get away, too!"

"We'll split up!" Shadow said to Knuckles, "You go after the robot, I'll go after Circuit!"

"Oh, sure, YOU get to have all the fun!" Knuckles said, as the two of them took off towards the city as well.

So a wild chase through the city commenced. Knuckles and Shadow did their best to to catch their targets, although they caused some property damage in during the chase. Eventually, they met at the park. Knuckles had caught the security robot by the time Shadow chased Circuit to the park.

"Ok!" Shadow said, "Tell us what you're up too!"

"That's what I was sent to ask you!" Circuit said, "Since you interfered with the robot, I attacked... the doctor needs it."

"But do you?" Knuckles said, "From what you said in Eggman's base, you know a lot more about what's going on than we do! You have Charge's memories, after all!"

"That's true, you do!" Came Eggman's voice. Everyone looked up to see Dr. Eggman in his Eggmobile flying up above, "Have you been withholding information from me, Circuit?"

"Of course not, Doctor!" Circuit said in desperation.

"Lies." Dr. Eggman said, "You've been trouble ever since you woke up, and now you're lying to me? I should have realized you weren't telling me something, but I had more faith in you. I guess my faith was misplaced."

Eggman tapped a button on a control panel, and Circuit started to be electrocuted again.

"What are you doing?!" Knuckles yelled, as Circuit was writhing on the ground.

"Punishing him!" Eggman said, "Things that don't obey their masters deserve to be punished! Metal Sonic learned that, and so will you Circuit!"

"Cut it out!" Knuckles yelled leaping up and throwing a punch at Eggman, but the doctor quickly dodged. While Knuckles continued to attack Eggman, Circuit slowly stood up through the pain. With once final scream, Circuit pointed a hand at Eggman and fired a bolt of electricity at him, hitting both Eggman and Knuckles in the process.

"Circuit! What are you doing!?" Eggman said, recovering from the shock.

"Looks like your invention's gone haywire!" Shadow said, as Circuit was rabidly attacking Shadow as well.

"How is he doing that?" Knuckles said, dodging swings from the deranged hedgehog, and getting hit with electric shocks. Shadow's face suddenly had a shocked expression.

"He's mixing Chaos energy..." Shadow said, "...with electricity!"

"Clever, Using the shock-system for punishing him as a weapon!" Eggman said, flying away, "I'll let you deal with him, however! I'll clean up the mess later!"

"Eggman, you cowered!" Knuckles yelled.

"Follow him, Knuckles!" Shadow said, "I'll take care of Circuit!"

"You sure?" Knuckles asked, dodging another blow from Circuit.

"Just go!" Shadow yelled

"Whatever you say!" Knuckles said, "Good luck!"

As Knuckles left, Shadow began his fight with the deranged Circuit. The electricity was beginning to make his quills stick out radically, only emphasizing the fact the he had lost control. But no matter how erratic he was, Shadow easily dealt with his wild blows. After a while, Circuit seemed to begin focusing better, and he started using the electricity as a barrier so Shadow couldn't touch him, and tossing various things at him with what seemed to be magnetism, as well as pushing Shadow away with it.

"I've seen your magnetism before!" Shadow said, "But it won't help you win!"

Circuit was levitating in the air, suspending various different objects along with him. Shadow leaped from one object to another, until he got right up in front of Circuit.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow yelled, holding his emerald out. With that blast, he hit Circuit, knocking him down, and knocking him out. The electricity in the air ceased, and all the levitating objects fell to the ground with a crash.

"Like the doctor said, he'll clean up the mess." Shadow said, "I should go see if the others all alright."

Shadow left Circuit on the ground out cold, and took one last looks behind him as he started to leave.

"You may be based off of the Shadow Androids... but you can't ever compare to the ultimate life form."

* * *

Back at the beach, Sonic and Sparky were in the final stretch of their race.

"You've done good, greenie!" Sonic said, "But you look like you're about to pass out!"

"I... know..." Sparky said, breathing heavily "I'm not good... keeping this speed... for a long time!"

"Don't worry, maybe I'll train you sometime! But for now..." Sonic said with a smile, "This race is mine!"

With one last burst of speed, Sonic out ran Sparky with ease and finished the race. Tails had landed the Tornado at the finish line, and ran over to congratulate his hero on his victory. Sparky stopped running and sat down on the ground to catch his breath. While observing the celebrating duo, he couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, where did Knuckles and Shadow go?" Sonic asked, looking around.

"I don't know! They were gone when I got here!" Tails said.

"Sorry, but your friends are busy with an acquaintance of mine!" Came Eggman's voice. His Eggmobile was coming in from above.

"Eggman!" Sonic said, "You here to get your butt kicked again?"

"On the contrary!" Eggman said, "The only one doing any 'butt kicking' is me! I've been watching you for a while, and I want some answers! Especially from your green friend! I hate the fact that he's so friendly with you, after showing up out of nowhere!"

"You're not getting anything out of me!" Sparky said, clenching his fist.

"We'll see about that!" Eggman said. After tapping a few buttons, a dome covered the the top of the Eggmobile, and the water nearby started bubbling. A Pillar of water shot out, and it bent and twisted until it hit the Eggmobile. A big, sphere of water surrounded Eggman. He launched a flying Robot with a speaker in it out of the sphere, and his voice started coming through it.

"Oh ho ho! How do you like this? I engineered this water-like-substance to be just like Chaos!" Eggman chanted through the speaker, "Combined with my Eggmobile, I call it the Egg Cell!"

"Heh! Nice Toy, Eggman!" Sonic said, "But I'm sorry to say, I'm gonna have to break it!"

"HA! Just try!" Eggman said. Sonic began to dash at the Egg Cell, getting ready to jump at it.

"W-wait! Sonic, stop!" Tails yelled, "If you just jump at it, you'll get stuck in the substance! Plus, You can't swim, remember?! You'll never get through it!"

"Whoa!" Sonic said, breaking and coming to a stop, "You're right!"

"Oh ho ho! That's precisely why I designed this!" Eggman said, "Besides! Even if you could swim, you'll never be able to to reach me with enough force to damage me! Face it Sonic, I've won this time!"

A tentacle made of water shot out of the Egg Cell, smashing into the beach in front of Sonic.

"What's that thing?!" Knuckles said, coming up from the direction of the city.

"Knuckles, where have you been?!" Tails asked.

"I'll explain later!" Knuckles said, "But what do we do about bubble boy over here?"

"Wait! Sparky!" Sonic yelled, dodging another tentacle, "You use magnetism, right? You said so yourself!"

"Yeah? What about-" Then is hit Sparky, "That's right! I can magnetize things with electricity! And If that stuffs just like water..." Sparky raced out in front of the Egg Cell.

"What do you think YOUR doing?" Eggman said, getting ready to lash a tentacle out at Sparky.

"You should know your basic science, Eggman!" Sparky said, "Water conducts electricity!"

Dodging the Egg Cells tentacles, Sparky leaped up into the air.

"CHAOS BOLT!" Sparky shouted, shooting what seemed to be a ball of electricity out of his hand and at the Egg Cell. The bolt made contact, and the Egg Cell was electrocuted.

"N-no! The electricity is shorting everything out! I can't maintain the form-EEEYAAAA!" Eggman shouted, as he was shocked with electricity himself. The Egg Cell fell apart and splashed onto the ground, and the Eggmobile crashed to the ground as well. Sparky fell to the ground in exhaustion with a smile on his face.

"I... I did it!" Sparky said happily.

"So, you're just like Charge..." Shadow said, walking up, "Mixing Chaos energy and electricity!"

"Shadow!" Sparky said, getting up, "Where did you and Knuckles go?"

"That's not important right now." Shadow said, "I think it's about time you told us exactly what's going on."

"Yeah, Sparky! I think you should tell them!" Tails said. Sparky looked around at the group, and the unconscious Eggman lying on the ground with his mustache frazzled by the electricity.

"Okay... I'll tell you the full story..." Sparky said. He went on to explain his story: how he was from the future, how Charge was his brother, what happened in the future, and about the eighth emerald.

"I'm breaking every time travel rule that was put in place, but it really doesn't seem to matter at this point. Charge is my twin brother... although we don't look like it. We're both born in what I guess would be the near future for this time. Who our parents are, I can't tell you... after all, it might even erase us from existence. But anyway, Charge wasn't always like he is now. Sure, he always wanted to be on top, but he wasn't crazy... just adventurous. I was always following him around, being a side kick, rather than a hero. Everyday was pretty much normal... but one day, things began to change. Knuckles, on a excavation in the mystic ruins temples, found ancient carvings hidden away, depicting unknown powers each Chaos Emerald had. Another thing it showed was the existence of an eighth emerald."

"An eighth Chaos Emerald?" Sonic said, "Tails, did you know about this?"

"Sparky told me before... Sorry I didn't say anything!" Tails said.

"I know. It's all a bit sudden, but it's the truth. Not to mention stuff you aren't supposed to know..." Sparky continued, "But as I was saying, Knuckles found the tablet about the emeralds... and it wasn't long before Charge and I found out. That's when he got the crazy idea in his head about being the first ones to find this eighth emerald. If I had known what it would have done, I would have said no... but at the time, I just followed along. We convinced Tails to help us with an emerald radar, but even after we found the normal seven emeralds, there was no sign of the eighth. A few days went by, and Tails found that the eighth emerald had a different energy wave length the other emeralds. After the other emeralds were gathered in one spot, and the proper wave length was put into the radar, we managed to find it... buried under the earths surface, in the middle of a desert... like nobody wanted it to be found."

"Why wouldn't anybody want to find it?" Knuckles said, "And why was that one tablet the only place that mentioned it?"

"We didn't know." Sparky said, "All Tails came up with was the theory that eight emeralds just had too much power, and the eighth was supposed to be erased from history, so nobody could find it... and that theory was quickly reinforced. When the eighth emerald was brought into contact with the other emeralds, the power they gave out grew enormously. It seemed that the eighth emerald actually enhanced the power of the Chaos Emeralds, similarly to how the Master Emerald could negate their powers. How dangerous it was, though... was confirmed when Charge grabbed the eighth emerald."

"What happened to him?" Sonic asked.

"It almost killed him. The power was just too much..." Sparky continued, "He ended up in critical state, an fell into a coma for two weeks.... when he woke up, though, something seemed different about him. He claimed that the emeralds called to him, and he could feel where they were. He said that he knew his destiny... and how he was destined to have the emeralds to himself. I thought he was still just a bit delusional from his experience, and just wasn't fully awake yet. But I was wrong.... his behavior continued on for a year. He grew distant, and violent. Not to mention his eyes had changed to their new color... he wasn't acting like my brother anymore, and all he could think about was the emeralds... Tails had hidden the eighth emerald away, because it had been deemed too dangerous. It's power was never meant to be used, unless really needed... but one night, Charge bolted from our home, completely out of nowhere. He found the original seven emeralds, and immediately seemed to know where the eighth was... he found it in a matter of moments."

"What happened then...?" Knuckles asked.

Sparky shuddered a bit, but continued on, "Charge... attacked the city. Just to test his powers out... he screamed something about righting wrongs and reshaping the world... he had gone crazy, with all that power! I don't even know how he survived using all eight emeralds for a second time... or how I did."

"You used all eight, too?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah... I had too." Sparky replied, "With Sonic's help, I managed to reach Charge. He was floating above the city, and had all eight emeralds floating around him. I grabbed onto him, and grabbed the eighth emerald... and then I just did the first thing that popped into my head. I used Chaos Control! I warped the emeralds away, and both Charge and I fell to the ground. Of course, I was knocked out... and I was lucky to be alive at all. But when I woke up, Charge was gone. I went looking for him, and then there was an explosion from Tails' workshop. So I knew where he was."

"And then that's when the two of you used the time machine, right?" Tails asked.

"Time machine?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, that's right." Sparky said, "Tails in my time had been working on a time machine project. It was just a prototype, and in the testing phases... but Charge was obsessed. You see, when I used Chaos Control on the emeralds, they just seemed to vanish. I could have sent them to another planet, for all I know... but wherever they were, Charge could find them. So rather than look in another place... he decided to look in another time."

"And that's when your little quest started, right?" Knuckles said.

"Yeah. And who knows what's happened to the future because of it... I just hope I can fix things." Sparky said.

"That was a touching story!" Came Eggman's voice. Everyone turned around, as the doctor's Eggmobile suddenly started to float in the air again, "Pretending to be asleep payed off!"

"Eggman! You dirty rat!" Knuckles said, pounding his fists together.

"No need to call me names! Now, tell me how to time travel, and the exact location of this eighth emerald!" Eggman said, taking out an energy gun, and pointing it at the group, "Or I'll have to be a bit more forceful!"

"Doctor! Doctor! Are you there?!" A voice suddenly said over Eggman's intercom.

"I'm busy! What do you want!?" Eggman yelled.

"We're under attack, sir!" The voice said, "The unidentified purple hedgehog has suddenly attacked the base!"

"WHAT?! Stop him!" Eggman yelled.

"Charge is attacking your base?!" Sparky said, "You have a Chaos Emerald there, don't you?"

"What's it to you!?" Eggman said

"I need to get it before him!" Sparky shouted.

"Like I'd let you OR him get anything of mine!" Eggman said, going back to the intercom, "I'll be there as soon as I can! Fight him off, and don't let him get to the emeralds!" Eggman then started to take off into the air, "We'll finish this another time, you imbeciles! I've got more important matters to attend to now!"

"Looks who's calling people names now!" Knuckles shouted up.

"Everyone, we've got to follow him!" Sonic said. "WE can't let Charge get that emerald either!"

"Let's get into the Tornado!" Tails said, "It might be a tight fit, but it's the quickest way!"

"I'll show you where the base is!" Knuckles said, "I know where the entrance is!"

Everyone ran to the Tornado, except for Sparky. He was still looking in the direction Eggman flew.

"Did he say 'emeralds?' So he's DOES have more than one..." Sparky said, trying to think about who had what emeralds.

"What are you doing? Hurry up!" Shadow yelled at Sparky. Sparky's attention was grabbed, and he ran off to the Tornado to pursue Eggman.

* * *

"It's over there!" Knuckles shouted, pointing towards the Mystic Ruins ground.

"I think we can tell, Knuckles..." Sonic said, as a giant hole was in the ground in place of the entrance to Eggman's Base. The five heroes were in in the Tornado, with Sonic and Shadow standing on the wings, and Knuckles and Sparky jammed in behind Tails as he was piloting. Tails landed the Tornado down by the hole, and the group ran over to it. Sparky, however, quickly stumbled and landed on the ground on his hands and knees.

"You okay, kid?" Knuckles said, checking on Sparky.

"Yeah, I'm fine... just still a little worn out from that race, I guess!" Sparky said.

"Not to mention you fought off Eggman." Sonic said, "You wait here. I wouldn't want you falling behind!"

"I'll stay here with him." Shadow said, "I'm a little worn out myself."

"Whatever you say! We'll see you top side!" Sonic said, dashing over and diving into the hole.

"Don't worry! I'll give your brother a couple punches for you!" Knuckles said, jumping in after Sonic.

"He won't get that emerald as long as I'm around!" Tails said reassuringly, and went in too.

So, Shadow and Sparky were left alone to wait, as they herd commotion coming from down the hole.

"I assume this belongs to you." Shadow said, taking out the torn piece of photo he and Tails had found.

"Ah, yeah... I guess it got torn when I was trying to get away from the Chaotix." Sparky said, "I left my rucksack at Tails' workshop... I guess I'll put the photo back together later."

"...You don't really hate Charge, do you?" Shadow asked.

"What makes you say that?" Sparky said, a little surprised.

"Why else would you be carrying a photo with him in it around with you?" Shadow said, sitting down next to Sparky.

"Ah..." Sparky said, "I guess your right... I've keeping that photo around with me for over a year. It's the last photo of Charge before he changed... a big group photo of all of us..." Sparky began to tear up. "I... I just want everything to go back to the way it was..."

"If there's anything I've learned in my life," Shadow said, as Sparky looked up at him, "It's that you can't obsess over the past. Although it may be hard, it's for the best. Focusing on the past will always bring you down. And it almost drove me crazy."

"I guess... your right." Sparky said, wiping his eyes, "But I don't think I can forget..."

"It's impossible to forget, but you have to let the wounds heal. Give it time. And never give up." Shadow said, smirking, "I hate to admit it, but Sonic taught me that."

"He taught me a lot of things too..." Sparky said, "He's got a way of changing things..."

"I suppose he does." Shadow said, looking at the hole to Eggman's base, "And he always pulls through. Let's hope he does this time, too..."

* * *

"This place is falling apart!" Knuckles said, dodging fire and rubble, "Charge must be upset over something!"

"He's probably still mad over us kicking his purple butt!" Sonic commented, racing along the corridor with Tails and Knuckles, "Though I'd just be upset if I were purple!"

"Enough jokes, Sonic! We've gotta find that emerald!" Knuckles said, punching a Robot aside.

"Eggman must be pretty upset too!" Tails said, "I'd hate to run into either of them!"

"I don't think it'll be possible to avoid them! We're gonna have to fight to get Eggman's emerald! And while we're at it, how about we take the one's Charge got a hold of, too? The three of us can take him out easily!"

"Not such a bad ide-WHOA!" Knuckles shouted, as the ceiling crashed down in front of him.

"Knuckles!" Sonic and Tails said, running back to where the ceiling caved in.

"Knuckles, are you ok?" Sonic yelled through.

"I'm fine! You two go on ahead, I'll dig myself out!" Knuckles yelled back.

"Okay! If you say so!" Sonic responded, "Come on, Tails!"

"Okay Sonic! See you later, Knuckles!" Tails said, as he and Sonic continued to race through the crumbling base.

"Jeeze... No second thoughts!" Knuckles said, starting to dig and punch his way through the rubble in front of him. In a short time, he had made it through, and continued onward himself.

"Those two... I don't think I'll be able to catch up soon!" Knuckles said. The damage seemed to be getting worse as he went on, even to points where there were holes that led down floors and floors below. Knuckles continued to punch his way through the seemingly endless number of robots and piles of debris. He eventually found himself and an almost untouched room.

"Looks like a dead end... but I feel the emerald's close. Now where did those two go...?" Knuckles said, looking through the shelves and tables of partially broken science equipment.

"Talking to yourself is a bit odd." Came a voice, "But then again, we all seem to do it every now and then." Knuckles looked all over for the source of the voice.

"I'm over here." The voice said again. Knuckles recognized it this time: it was Charge. He raced around a shelf of equipment to see Charge in the center of the room, observing two Chaos Emeralds in a glass case.

"Strange. For a man with an IQ of 300, he really is an idiot." Charge said, "I mean, he left two Chaos Emeralds lying right out in the open! I suppose he was confident nobody would find this place. Don't you agree?"

Charge turned around like he was expecting an answer. But all Knuckles did was stare at Charge angrily, clenching his fists.

"There's something that's bothering me, though." Charge continued, "There are two emeralds here, yet I can only feel the presence of one. This purple emerald is giving off energy, yet this red one is giving off nothing of the sort... it's like it isn't even there... and to make things even more complicated, I already HAVE the red Chaos Emerald... see?" Charge took out his red emerald and showed it to Knuckles. While intrigued by there being two red Chaos Emeralds, he still couldn't bring himself to say anything to Charge. He could just stand there, getting more and more angry.

"I assume somebody told you about the two green emeralds, right?" Charge said, "It's the same thing. It seems that me and my brother coming here have had some... unforeseen effects on this time."

Knuckles only continued to angrily stare at Charge, and Charge got a sour look on his face.

"You know, it's really rude not to respond to somebody when they're talking to you." Charge said, like Knuckles was some disobeying child. Knuckles finally snapped, and nailed Charge in the face with his fist, sending him crashing through shelves, tables, and the case that had the Chaos Emeralds in it.

"Who do you think you are?! Just talking to me like I'm your friend!" Knuckles yelled, clenching the master emerald shard tied around his neck, "Did you forget what you did to your own time?! To me?! YOU TOOK THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD FROM ME!"

"Finally, I got a response from you." Charge said, getting up and dusting himself off, "Though I wasn't expecting it to hurt that much. You must be pretty angry."

Knuckles ran over and punched Charge again, sending him back to the ground.

"Guarding the Master Emerald was my duty! My life! It was the one thing I had that tied me to my people!" Knuckles yelled, "And you just BLEW IT UP, like it was just something you could find on the ground!"

"Now, now, no need to get so upse-" Charge began to say, getting up again, but he was cut off by Knuckles diving at him again. This time however, Charge pushed him away with his magnetism power. He then continued to use it, by pushing everything I the room towards the walls, clearing an open area in the middle of the room.

"I still don't like using that power." Charge said, "But how else would I deal with a raging bull..."

Knuckles got up off the ground, breathing heavily and still angry.

"Do you REALLY think you can beat me on your own?" Charge said mockingly, "I have four Chaos Emeralds on my side. They'll only ENHANCE my already overwhelming power! I think I'll beat you, and then go get the rest... you can keep the other red one, though. I still can't feel anything from it, so it's useless to me. It's a gift from me... that is, if you survive!

"You're dead, Charge!" Knuckles said, his voice shaking with anger, "There won't be anything left when I'm through with you!"

"We'll see about that!" Charge said, accepting Knuckles' challenge with his four emeralds floating around him. The two began to fight, but Charge was using the emeralds to fight, and seemed to be using his magnetism power more often, despite claiming he didn't like it. Knuckles could barely land a hit.

"It's useless! There's no possible way you can win! AHAHAHA!" Charge laughed, "It's funny how ignorant you are, thinking you even had a chance!"

"You're too cocky Charge!" Knuckles said, pushing against the force trying to force him backwards, "Don't you DARE underestimate me!"

Then, with a flicker of green light, Charge's Chaos Emeralds suddenly started to dim in brightness.

"Wh-what?!" Charge said, feeling a sudden drop in his power, "What's going on! The Chaos Emeralds stopped working!"

With Charge's concentration broken, Knuckles pushed through the magnetic force repelling him, and nailed Charge in the face with his fist. Charge got up quickly, and in a panic, started to dart around the room to avoid Knuckles.

"Ezmrhs! Nliks! HSIRMP!" Charge yelled, pointing his Chaos Emeralds at Knuckles, "I don't get it! The emerald powers aren't working either!"

"I know what's going on, Charge!" Knuckles said, with a smile, "I realized it moment ago! Too bad YOU won't be around to know it! You're going..."

Knuckles leaped up into the air, with a panicking Charge right below him.

"...DOWN!" Knuckles said, as his fist made an impact on Charges face one more time, slamming him into the floor, and into a pile of junk. Charge looked up at Knuckles, barely holding onto his consciousness.

"I get it now..." Charge said, "You're emerald shard... negated the powers of my emeralds... just like when it was whole... but how could one measly shard stop four Chaos Emeralds?"

"The bond I shared with the Master Emerald was just as great as the bond I share with my friends." Knuckles said, "That bond activated the shard's power! No matter how many pieces it's broken into, and no matter how much of it is destroyed... as long as I had that bond, I knew you couldn't beat me."

"Heh... a foolish... concept..." Charge said, still struggling to stay awake.

"Someone who only focuses on power would think that, huh?" Knuckles said, "I'll be taking these, by the way." Knuckles precoded to pick up Charge's emeralds, as well as the second red one. Charge attempted to stop him, but he quickly collapsed on the floor again.

"Count yourself lucky. I don't really feel like killing you anymore. You're too pathetic for that." Knuckles said, walking out of the room with the emeralds in his arms, "Plus, beating you relieved some stress. But if you cause trouble again, you'll have ME to deal with!"

Knuckles left the room, leaving Charge on the ground. He reached his arm up in a vain attempt to get Knuckles, but he couldn't hold on any longer and lost consciousness. Knuckles was, however, quickly interrupted by a wave of robots in front of him.

"Oh, so you guys want to play, too, huh?" Knuckles said, "OK! BRING IT ON!"

And with that, Knuckles began to fight his way back to the surface, with his Master Emerald shard dangling at his neck.

* * *

Around the same time, Sonic and Tails had made their way down below to the Robot Repair shop, finding it just as empty as Knuckles did.

"Darn, did we make a wrong turn?" Sonic said, "I don't see any Chaos Emerald here..."

"Maybe Knuckles found them already!" Tails said.

"Maybe. We probably ended up going different ways, since he hasn't caught up by now." Sonic replied, observing his surroundings, "Where are we, anyway?"

"My robot repair shop!" Came Eggman's voice, startling Sonic and Tails, "But it doesn't really matter anymore, considering my new base has not only been discovered, but nearly torn to shreds!"

"Eggman!" Sonic yelled, "So what are you planing?!"

"I'll abandon this base and start again, of course!" Eggman chanted, "But first, I plan on taking you out! Our rivalry ends today, Sonic and Tails!"

"Heh, I haven't heard that one before!" Sonic taunted.

"Face it Eggman, you'll never win against us!" Tails chimed in.

"This time... will be different!" Eggman said. Quickly following, the right wall burst open, flinging Sonic and Tails back. Out of a large opening came what seemed to be two robots. Each resembled a robot torso, about half the hight of the room, with a glass dome at the top, and they both had two arms, each ending with a large cannon. Instead of legs, though, the two robots were connected with a snake-like body.

"This masterpiece is called the Egg Twin!" Eggman said,in the half of the robot that was in front of Sonic, "And it'll be your downfall! It requires two pilots, however, so Metal Sonic is assisting me!"

"It's always a pleasure, Doctor." Metal Sonic said, in the half of the robot facing Tails, "After these two are incapacitated... may I have the permission to finish them off my self?"

"Oh ho! Sure, why not?" Eggman chanted, "You have my permission... IF I don't get carried away!"

"Some toy, huh Tails?" Sonic said, "We're gonna have to do this together! You take on Metal Sonic, while I go at Eggman!"

"Ok Sonic! Be careful!" Tails said, sounding a little worried.

"Heh, don't worry! We've taken out stuff just as bad before!" Sonic said, perfectly confident.

"I'm going to enjoy this FAR more than I should, Sonic!" Eggman said, "Metal Sonic! Commence the attack!"

"Yes Doctor!" Metal Sonic said, "Tails! First I'll crush you, then comes Sonic! Only I can be Sonic!"

"You're as crazy as ever!" Tails said, avoiding a swing of the Egg Twin's arm, "I'll never let you hurt Sonic!"

"Not that he has chance at hurting me to begin with!" Sonic said, "Ok Tails! Let's go! Full out attack!"

And Thus, the battle began. Laser blasts and giant swinging arms forced the two heroes back, and the already damaged base seemed to crumble even more. Tails and Sonic seemed to be getting nowhere in the fight, and the Egg Twin seemed to keep going strong.

"Well, Sonic? Give up yet?" Eggman asked smugly.

"Not a chance!" Sonic said, even though he knew he was at a disadvantage. But being experienced in situations like these, Sonic quickly thought of something. "Tails, I've got an idea! Do what I do, ok?"

"Okay, Sonic!" Tails said, and eyed his hero closely, while still trying to avoid Metal Sonic's attacks. Sonic launched himself into the air, avoiding a laser blast, and landed on the Metal Tube connecting the two halves of the Egg Twin.

"What do you think you're doing up there?!" Eggman said, swatting at the Hedgehog as he began to run up the tube towards the machine. Tails quickly figured out what Sonic was up too, and quickly did the same, heading at Metal Sonic.

"I'm just coming to see you, Eggman!" Sonic said, as he jumped from the tube, and up to the dome covering Eggman. With a swift spin attack, he hit the dome and caused it to crack. Tails did the same to Metal Sonic, and his dome cracked as well.

"How do you like that, Eggman! I found your weak point!" Sonic said, landing on the ground.

"That was just luck! But now we'll finish this! Metal Sonic! Prepare the Twin-Missile!" Eggman commanded his partner.

"Yes Doctor!" Metal Sonic said, tapping some buttons in the Egg Twin.

"On my mark!" Eggman said, getting ready.

"A missile attack?" Sonic said, "I expected more from you, Eggman!"

"This isn't just ANY missile, Sonic!" Eggman said with a smile, "These missiles have been locked onto YOUR D.N.A. Patterns! They'll follow you forever until they hit their target!"

"What?!" Tails said, "Sonic! This is bad!"

"Don't worry, Tails!" Sonic said, "We can do this!"

"Touching." Eggman said, "But now is the time to say good bye! TWIN-MISSILE! FIRE!"

The two sides of the Egg Twin both fired a missile, and as predicted, they remained locked onto Sonic and Tails and followed them wherever they went. In an attempt to lead it off course, Sonic tried to get to Eggman's dome and make the missile hit him instead. But he was forced back by a newly placed forcefield. Metal Sonic put up a forcefield as well.

"Ho ho! Did you REALLY think I didn't have some insurance?" Eggman said, "Face it Sonic, you've lost!"

"I don't think so!" Tails said, "I've got an idea, Sonic! Now you follow my lead!"

"Alright, Tails, what's the plan?" Sonic said, doing a flip over the incoming missile.

"Get in front of the Egg-Twins connector and hold still!" Tails said.

"Hold still? Are you nuts?!" Sonic said, looking at his friend had become crazy with exhaustion.

"Just trust me, Sonic!" Tails said, "And jump on my mark!"

"...ok, Tails! I think I know what you're getting at!" Sonic said with realization. The two, managed to get a good distance between them and the missile, and they stood still right in front of the Egg Twin's tube.

"Giving up, are we?" Eggman said with a smirk, "It's about time!"

"Doctor, wait!" Metal Sonic said, "They're trying to get the missiles to hit the connector!"

"What?! Divert the forcefield to that area!" Eggman said, now in a panic.

"JUMP!" Tails yelled. He and Sonic Jumped at the same time. The missiles, with no time to turn, collided with the connector tube and blew it up. With that, both sides of the robot powered down and collapsed.

"I knew it!" Tails said, getting up from the floor after being blown back by the explosion, "Not only did it need two pilots, the two halves need to be connected for it work at all!"

"Way to go, Tails!" Sonic said, getting up as well, and looked over at Eggman, who had crawled out of his side of the Egg Twin, "What do you have to say now, Eggman?"

Eggman looked angrily at Sonic, and snapped his fingers. Metal Sonic rushed over and picked Eggman up, heading towards the exit.

"I say that I win, Sonic!" Eggman said.

"What are you talking about? Did you get hit on the head too many times?" Sonic said with a laugh.

"Remember how I said I would abandon this base and start again?" Eggman said, "I already thought of this out come! This base has been set to self-destruct since you walked into the room!"

"What!?" Sonic yelled, with Tails looking at Eggman with equal shock.

"I could have deactivated it if I had won, but oh well!" Eggman said with a laugh, "I'd say you have about five minutes before you're blown to bits!"

Sonic and Tails started to dash at the escaping Eggman, but he and Metal Sonic were already were already at the elevator that Knuckles had used before.

"So long Sonic!" Eggman said, as the doors closed, "You've been a worthy adversary!"

"Farewell, Sonic..." Metal Sonic said, "It's a shame I didn't get to finish you off myself."

With that, the Elevator started to rise up to the surface, leaving our heroes stranded.

"No time to think, Tails!" Sonic said, grabbing his friend's wrist and taking up at top speed, "We gotta get out of here!"

"Okay, Sonic!" Tails said with a bit of panic in his voice. Tails jumped onto Sonic's back, and began spinning his Tails as hard as he could to help propel them forward faster. Since all personnel were apparently aware of the self-destruct sequence, they dashed through the now evacuated hallways and jumped over the pits left by Charge's rampage. With the clock ticking down, they came up to the place where they came in, and did their best to jump out, only to be forced up by the shock-wave of the base exploding. Knuckles, Shadow, and Sparky, who had all been waiting outside, all observed as Sonic and Tails were flung up into the air, followed by a pillar of fire, as they were knocked to their feet by the tremor of the explosion.

With a smile and breathing heavily, watching the scene below them, Tails was holding Sonic up in the air. They landed on the ground, and although they were a bit weak-kneed from the rush of the escape, they gave each other a high-five, and simultaneously shouted:

"THAT WAS AWESOME!"


	5. Final Story

Moments before Sonic and Tails' explosive exit...

"EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WAY!" Knuckles shouted at Shadow and Sparky as he emerged from the hole that lead to Eggman's base.

"Knuckles! What's wrong?" Sparky said, getting up off the ground, with Shadow already alert.

"Robots! And A LOT of them!" Knuckles said, running over to Sparky and Shadow and putting up his fists, "I was fighting my way through the base, when HUNDREDS of them started running at me! Get ready to fight them off!"

It was true; what seemed like Eggman's entire army of robots came emerging out of the hole. But instead of going after Knuckles, they instead ran off in the opposite direction, towards the woods.

"Huh?" Knuckles said in curiosity.

"Rather than chasing you, it seems they were running from something." Shadow said, not putting down his guard.

"But from what?" Sparky said, looking at his companions.

A few moments later, it happened: a huge boom, tons of rumbling, and Sonic and Tails came flying out of the hole with a pillar fire following them.

After Knuckles, Shadow, and Sparky got to there feet, Sonic and Tails landed, high-fived eachother, and shouted "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"What the heck just happened?!" Knuckles shouted, still in awe at what he just witnessed.

"Eggman set the base to self destruct!" Sonic said to Knuckles, "We barely made it out!"

"I'm lucky I got out, too!" Knuckles said, "Oh! Look what I managed to snag!"

Knuckles took out the five emeralds he got from Charge and the Base: light blue, green, purple, and the two reds.

"Where did you get those?" Tails asked, "Wait... there are two red emeralds!"

"Ah! And look!" Sparky said, taking out the purple emerald he had in his possession. Shadow did the same with his green emerald.

"Three duplicate emeralds..." Sonic said, curiously, "How did THIS happen?"

"I got these from Charge while I was in the base!" Knuckles said, "Before I knocked him out, he said it might have to do with the time traveling he and Sparky did! An 'unforeseen effect', or something like that."

"Wait a minute..." Sparky said with a look of horror on his face, "Charge was in there!?"

Sparky dashed over to the hole, and looked down at the flaming wreckage below. There was an awkward silence over the group, realizing that Sparky's brother, evil or not, had just been caught in a fiery explosion.

"Sparky!" A voice called out. Everyone looked back to see Rouge, Big, and Team Chaotix running up.

"There you are! We've been looking all over for you!" Rouge said to the distraught hedgehog, "Did something happen?"

"Charge was just killed." Shadow said, as the group looked at him, "He was in Eggman's base when it exploded."

"You mean the other emerald thief?" Charmy said, "Isn't that a good thing? I thought he was a bad guy!"

"I guess he was..." Sparky said looking at the ground, still in shock, "But he was still my brother..."

"Ah... I apologize for my friends statement." Espio said, as Vector clonked Charmy on the head, "Rouge explained the situation to us the best she could. As strange as your story seems, we decided to drop the case for now."

"Right! But if you cause any more trouble, it's off to jail!" Vector said.

"Yeah, I got it..." Sparky said, still staring down into the hole. The awkward silence continued, until Sonic walked over to Sparky, and put his hand on Sparky's shoulder. Sparky looked at Sonic for a moment, and suddenly wrapped his arms around Sonic as he burst into tears. Taken aback at first, Sonic slowly did the same, as Tails came over and joined the hug too. Soon, it was a great big group hug, as Shadow, Espio, Knuckles, and Vector watched while Sparky sobbed.

When the emotional scene ceased, the Chaotix and Big left to go back to their homes. The other's conversation continued, however.

"What will you do now, Sparky?" Tails asked.

"I don't know." Sparky said, with his arms crossed, "I would go home, but I'm not sure how."

"Well, then why don't get to work on that time machine of yours?" Sonic said, as the group looked at him, "Better now than never, right?"

"Yeah!" Tails said in excitement, "Now that I know about it, I'm excited to get to work on it! You'll be back in your time before you know it!"

"But Tails in my time didn't start that until I was already born!" Sparky said, "We just can't alter the course of history like that!"

"Too bad, but I think you did already." Shadow said, "There's no going back now, so we might as well get on with it."

"...I guess you're right!" Sparky said with a sigh, "I'll be able to help... I think I got the gist of how it worked."

Before the group could continue to Tails' workshop to begin, though, there was an eruption of energy from the ground. Having just burst out, a beaten and burnt Charge landed on the ground in front of them. He had a wild expression on his face, and looked ready to kill.

"What the-?!" Knuckles said, suddenly being nailed in the stomach by Charge's fist. Being knocked to the ground, Charge took the opportunity to grab all the Chaos Emeralds Knuckles had taken from him, aside from one red one.

"Charge!" Sparky said in shock, "You're alive?!"

"Surprised to see me, brother!?" Charge asked wildly, "You should know by now that you can't hope to beat me!" Pointing the purple emerald he had just taken at the ground by Sparky, Charge shouted "ULIDZIW!"

As a ray of purple light hit the ground, a small seed that was in the spot suddenly grew into a tree right under Sparky. Being tangled in the branches of the tree, Sparky was left helpless as Charge dove at him, blasting his way through, and taking the blue, white and yellow emeralds Sparky had.

Trying to take in all the craziness that just happed, Tails, Sonic, and Shadow looked at Charge as he emerged from the tree, seven Chaos Emeralds floating around him.

"I did it!" Charge said with a deranged smile, "I DID IT!"

"Oh no you don't!" Sonic said, diving at Charge, but he was easily repelled by Charge's magnetism.

"You really think you can stop me NOW?!" Charge said, "IT'S HOPELESS! I CAN FINALLY CREATE MY PERFECT WORLD!"

Glowing with energy, Charge's fur color turned a white-purple color, and his quills all began to point upwards.

"There's only one piece of the puzzle missing...!" Charge said, looking out towards the city, "And there it is!"

"NO!" Sparky said, as Rouge was helping him down from the tree. With his quills standing on end, Charge took off towards the city at lightning speed, flying through the sky. Rouge and Sparky landed, while Tails was helping Knuckles off the ground.

"He's going after the eighth emerald! He know where it it!" Sparky said in a panic.

"Well we have to go after him!" Sonic said.

"It's impossible! Nothing can stop him now! I can't even catch him off-guard! He'll be expecting that!" Sparky said, panicking as much as someone could.

"It's only over if we don't try!" Sonic yelled at Sparky, shaking him.

"NO!" Sparky said, freaking out and pushing Sonic away, "You don't get it! You haven't seen what he can do! I watched my entire city get blown to pieces in a matter of seconds! We can't hope to-"

Sparky was interrupted with a quick slap across the face from Rouge. Sparky, in shock, just stood there. He looked around at the group, who weren't panicking in the slightest.

"Where did all this negative talk come from?" Rouge said in anger, "Weren't YOU the one that was going on about stopping him! You've come too far to give up now!"

"If you really do know us, you should know we would never give up." Shadow said, his arms crossed.

"This isn't the first time the situation has seemed hopeless!" Knuckles continued, "And I'm definitely not gonna stop now!

"They're right Sparky! We've got to see this through to the end!" Sonic said, pumping his fist in the air, "Let's get to the Tornado! Tails, get ready to fly at maximum speed!"

"Ok, Sonic! I'm not gonna give up either!" Tails said, as everybody dashed over towards the tTornado. Sparky stayed in place though, staring at the group, and rubbing his slapped face. Taking a deep breath, he clenched his fists and followed the others.

* * *

Charge was shooting through the city, smashing through buildings like they weren't even there. His head darted left and right, looking for his prize. Will one final look of realization, he launched himself towards the ground, and smashed through the city streets into the sewers. Moments later, he came out, holding it in his hands: the Eighth Chaos Emerald, glowing with an orange light.

"The time for a new world..." Charge said, "HAS COME!"

The Tornado flew into the city, only to witness an enormous burst of light. Blinded by it, Tails couldn't see what he was doing and began to lose control of the plane.

"Sonic! I-I can't see where I'm going!" Tails said, doing his best to squint through the light.

"We've got to abandon ship before we crash!" Sonic said. So, the group crammed into the Tornado leaped out, right before the plane crashed into a billboard, spun out of control, and slammed into the ground.

Tails was holding onto Sonic, and Rouge was holding onto Shadow as they flew their way down to the ground. Knuckles did his best to glide to a safe spot while holding onto Sparky. As they all landed, the light began to clear, and they looked up to see Charge floating above the city. In addition to his previous changes, the stripes from his quills had extended all the way down to his muzzle, and his eyes had turned pure white.

"What's he doing? He's just floating there!" Sonic said, observing from below.

"He did this before, too! Like he has to fully take in the power!" Sparky said, "After he got the eighth emerald!"

"So he has it?!" Tails said in shock, "What do we do now?!"

"We have to find some way to fight him!" Knuckles said, "We've got these duplicate emeralds, maybe they can help!"

"Maybe, but we've only got three..." Sparky said, thinking hard. The entire situation seemed hopeless, and everyone thought as hard as they could.

"Well, if three of the emeralds were duplicated..." Rouge said, "Maybe the others were too?"

"Hey, wait!" Tails said suddenly, "Sparky, you said you couldn't feel any energy coming from that purple emerald, right?"

"Yeah. It's like it's made of glass, as well as the other two we have." Sparky said, "The only emeralds I can sense are the ones that Charge has."

"But I can feel all three of these emeralds." Shadow said, "And Charge couldn't feel this green one until I used it for Chaos Control."

"If that's the case, then I need to confirm one more thing..." Tails said, "Sparky, you said you used Chaos Control on the emeralds in your time, right? And then they vanished without a trace?"

"Yeah, but what-" Sparky said, as he was suddenly hit with realization, "Are you saying what I think you're saying?!"

"I think I get it, too." Sonic said with a smile.

"Yeah!" Knuckle chimed in, "When Sparky used Chaos Control on his emeralds, he DIDN'T warp them to another place!"

"He warped them to another time!" Shadow said, "Our time!"

"So I could only feel energy from the emeralds Charge has..." Sparky said, "Because those are the ones from MY time?!"

"And the same goes for our emeralds. We can only detect these ones because their from this time! And we could only detect the other time's emeralds when they were used for something! " Shadow said.

"So that means there's another set of Chaos Emeralds in this time!" Rouge said.

"We don't have a second to lose!" Sonic said suddenly, "If that's the case, we've got to find the rest of OUR emeralds as fast as we can! Including the eighth!"

"You guys go! I'll do my best to distract Charge; there's no telling when he'll come out of this frozen state!" Sparky said, "Then we'll need an emerald radar, so we can tune it to find the eighth!"

"Got it!" Knuckles said, pounding his fists together, "Never fear: this treasure hunter won't let you down!"

"I'll find those emeralds as fast as possible!" Shadow said, as both he and Knuckles took off.

"I'll go back to my workshop to get a radar!" Tails said, "Then I'll join in the hunt!"

"And I'll help Sonic find them!" Rouge said, "After all, I'm ten times the treasure hunter that echidna is!"

"Heh, thanks Rouge!" Sonic said, "You tell me where it is, and I'll get it with sonic speed!"

"Guys..." Sparky said, a bit tearful, "Thank you! Now I know there's hope!"

"There always was, Sparky!" Sonic said, "As long as we're around!"

Sonic, Tails, and Rouge took off, as Sparky looked above him, ready at any moment to take on his brother, should he start acting.

* * *

"The Master emerald was always active, keeping Angel Island a float..." Knuckle said to himself, scaling the buildings of the city, in search of a Chaos Emerald, "That must be why Charge could feel it, even though it wasn't from his time..."

Knuckles has to stop talking, though, and focus on the task at hand. After reaching the top of the building, trying to get a better look around, he suddenly found himself with Metal Sonic in front of him.

"What?! Not you!" Knuckles said, putting up his fists, "I don't have time to deal with you right now!"

"I'm not here to fight." Metal Sonic said, "I've been instructed by the doctor to... lend a hand."

"Let me guess..." Knuckles said, "Nobody is allowed to take over the world but him, right?"

"Precisely." Metal Sonic said. Suddenly around them, strange beings began to come out of nowhere. They looked like they were made of a clear, purple gel, and they were all resembled Charge, except they lacked any facial features.

"What the heck are these?!" Knuckles said, putting up his fists and going back-to-back with Metal Sonic.

"Upon scanning them, I can find no resemblance to any known substance." Metal Sonic said, his eyes blinking and flickering.

"Looks like Charge is trying to keep up at bay until he can get out of that frozen state!" Knuckles said, "Think you can help keep these things at bay while I look for a Chaos Emerald?"

"Fine." Metal Sonic said, "But this is the last time we ever work together."

"Heh, fine! That's a promise!" Knuckles said with a smile. The two dashed out, attacking the Gel-like beings, splattering them to pieces across the roof tops.

* * *

"There's a Chaos Emerald around here, I can feel it..." Shadow said, as he dashed through the forests in by the Mystic Ruins, "I need to hurry!"

Shadow was interrupted, however, by the same, Gel-like beings that Knuckles and Metal Sonic encountered.

"It seems Charge realized the same thing as us." Shadow said, only stopping for a moment before leaping over the being surrounding him, "Getting that emerald is even more important now!

Shadow jumped over obstacles and slammed his way through his opponents, but it got to the point where their were so many, they began to seriously hinder his movement. But something unusual came to help: an army of familiar robots, who began to fight off the gel-beings.

"Well Shadow! Ran into a bit of trouble, did we?" Eggman said, coming out of a clearing in his EggMobile.

"I could have handled them on my own, but thanks anyway." Shadow said, "Let me guess, you're helping because only YOU are allowed to take over the world?"

"Exactly!" Eggman said, "I'm not letting some hedgehog from the future to my job for me! The only one allowed to create a new world is me! Plus, there's no harm in helping out an old partner in crime, is there?"

"Hmph. I suppose you're right." Shadow said, "But I'm more on Sonic's side, these days."

"MORE on his side? So theres still I chance I could sway you?" Eggman said with a smile.

"Heh, don't count on it!" Shadow said, taking off through the battle field of robots and gel-beings.

* * *

"Aah! What are these things?!" Tails said, gripping his emerald radar while flying over a crowd of gel-beings. He was soaring through the fields of the Mystic Ruins, doing his best to locate the Chaos Emerald. A short way away, he saw a group of the gel-beings being torn to bits, with Team Chaotix in the middle of them.

"Where did these things come from?!" Vector said, swinging punches in all directions.

"There's no end to them!" Espio said, throwing ninja stars at his targets.

"Hey look!" Charmy said, taking a break from attacking, "Tails is flying this way!"

"Guys!" Tails said flying up, "We've got trouble!"

"Tails! What's going on!?" Espio said.

"I'll tell you in a second, but let's get out of here!" Tails said, as the number of gel-beings suddenly increased. The group took off running through the fields, as an army of Charge's minions followed them.

"So what's happening? What was that huge light from before?" Espio said, running at top speed.

"Charge got all the Chaos Emeralds!" Tails said, "Including the eighth!"

"You mean that super powered one Rouge told us about?!" Vector said in shock

"Oh no! What do we do?" Charmy said, flying along side Tails.

"We need to find the Chaos Emeralds from this time and stop him!" Tails said, causing puzzled faces to show up, "I'll explain later! But right now, I need you guys to back me up!"

"We'll do all we can to help!" Espio said, now looking confident, rather than puzzled.

"We'll cover you, Tails!" Vector said, "You look for what you need while we keep these guys at bay!"

"That mean Charge guy won't get what he wants!" Charmy said, excited and twirling around through the air.

The group took off through the fields, as Tails followed the Emerald Radar's signal towards the nearest Chaos Emerald, all while hoping he could make it back to the city in time.

* * *

"Theres just no end to these things!" Sonic said, running along the beach, fighting off the gel-beings as Rouge used all of her treasure-hunting skills and instincts to find the nearby Chaos Emerald.

"They make it pretty hard to concentrate, too!" Rouge said, as she took off into the air to avoid being ganged up on.

"We need to find that emerald fast, though!" Sonic said, bouncing off trees and his opponents heads, "There's no telling when Charge will wake up!"

"DAAAHH! HELP!" Came a familiar voice from down the beach. There was Big and Froggy, being engulfed in the same gel-like substance that was attacking our heroes.

"Whoa! Hang on!" Sonic said, going into a top-speed spin dash, slicing through the gel and splattering it everywhere. With Big and Froggy free, Rouge flew up, and realized where the Chaos Emerald was.

"These guys have it, Sonic!" Rouge said confidently, "I'm sure of it!"

"What? Big!" Sonic said, "Do you have one of the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Duh, yeah!" Big said, reaching into a pocket on his belt and taking the blue Chaos Emerald, "Me and Froggy found it while fishing! And after that big bright light, those jelly guys started to come after us! They looked like they were trying to get it!"

"Well, we need it for something! Do you mind if we have it?" Sonic said, holding his hand out.

"Uh, yeah! Sure!" Big said, handing the emerald over. "You need these things pretty often, huh?"

"I suppose I do! Now, let's see if I can still do this..." Sonic said, as a group of the gel-beings began to surround them. Sonic held the emerald up, and shouted "Chaos Control!"

With that, the group vanished just as the gel-beings dove at them.

* * *

Sparky, still in the city, was doing his best to protect the Chaos Emeralds he already had from the gel-beings. He had just fought off a big wave of them, and they seemed to have stopped for now. In a flash, Sonic, Rouge, Big, and Froggy warped in.

"Whoa! I'll never get used to that!" Sonic said, taking a look around them, "Looks like you ran into a bit of trouble!"

"You could say that..." Sparky said, panting, "Did you find any?"

"Yep, thanks to Rouge and Big here!" Sonic said, taking out the blue emerald. At the same time, Metal Sonic came rocketing in, hold onto Knuckles. Coming to an abrupt halt, Knuckles flew out of Metal Sonic's grip and crashed into a parking meter.

"Watch what you're doing, you bucket of bolts!" Knuckle said, rubbing his head and holding the yellow emerald.

"What?! Why is Metal Sonic here!" Tails said, as he ran up with Team Chaotix following him, while he held the white emerald.

"I assume he's here under the doctor's orders to assist us." said Shadow, walking in while holding the light blue emerald, "Am I right?"

"Indeed." Metal Sonic said, crossing his arms.

"Heh! For all the wrong reasons, I bet!" Sonic said.

"This is great! We still have a chance!" Sparky said, admiring the emeralds in front of him, "We just need the eighth now... Tails, hand me that radar!"

Tails handed the emerald radar over to Sparky, and he immediately began to twist knobs and push buttons, going as far to open up the radar and adjust the insides by hand. In a few seconds...

"I think I've got it!" Sparky said, turning the radar on, "Yes! I've got the location of the eighth Chaos Emerald!"

"That's great!" Tails said, "Now we'll have just as much power as Charge! We can beat him!"

"Stop!" Came a voice from behind the group. Circuit came staggering up, still beaten from his fight with Shadow, though he seemed more sane now.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" Sonic said.

"It looks like the Doctor never picked him up, after I fought him off." Shadow explained.

"I can't let you continue!" Circuit said, getting ready to fight.

"What! Calm down, you're in no condition to fight!" Knuckles said, waving him off.

"Circuit, the Doctor will be able to repair you." Metal Sonic said, "For now, stand down."

"No! I can't let you fight Charge!" Circuit said, "I can't let you hurt him!"

Circuit made a dive towards the Chaos Emeralds in attempt to take them away, but he was quickly bounced back by Vector, and restrained by Espio.

"You're in pain, stop what you're doing!" Espio said, holding Circuit back.

"He's right! Besides, this needs to be done!" Sparky said, looking just as panicked as Circuit.

"No, Sparky! I can't let either of you be hurt!" Circuit said, sending out a wave of electricity from his body and knocking Espio down. Diving at the emeralds again, Circuit received a swift kick to the head from Rouge, and he fell to the ground in a heap.

"What's his deal, anyway?" Sonic said.

"This has to do with the memories you received from Charge, doesn't it?" Shadow said, looking at Circuit, and then at Sparky.

"I can't... I can't..." Cicuit said, struggling to get back up, "I can't let you hurt my son!"

"WHAT!?" The group said together, aside from Sparky, Shadow, and a puzzled Big.

"Sparky, is that true?" Tails asked.

"Yeah... it's true." Sparky said, to the shocked group, "Circuit is our dad. But I didn't even know he was awake in this time!"

"We've encountered him a few times." Sonic said, "I noticed he acted weird after he copied Charge, but I never guessed this!"

"He threatened me if I hurt either of you..." Knuckles said, "It makes sense now!"

"After seeing the three of you fight, I noticed you could all do the same thing: mix Chaos Energy and electricity together." Shadow said, "But while I noticed the connection, I wasn't sure..."

"So can't you see why I have to stop you?" Circuit said, getting up, "I can't let harm come to my sons!"

"Thank you, father..." an echo-y voice said, "You've been helpful in stalling them..."

The gel beings suddenly came back, and engulfed Circuit in a huge blob. The ball of gel flew up into the air towards Charge, as he floated in the sky.

"DAAAAAD!" Sparky yelled, reaching a hand up at the sky. But with another flash of light, the blob was gone.

"Don't worry Sparky..." The voice said again, "He's fine... that gel is a physical manifestation of my energy... he's part of me now! And he'll be part of my perfect world..."

"Charge? Is that you?" Sparky said, "Stop this! The world is fine the way it is!"

"No it isn't..." Charge's voice came, "Crime, disease, pain... none of these things will exist in my perfect world! So after I level this one, I'll create a new one! One where I rule, one where I'm always on top! I'll make sure none of these things exist!"

"But you've caused pain while trying to accomplish your goal!" Tails said, "And you'll case more if you attack more!"

"Can't you see what you're doing is wrong?" Knuckles said, clutching the Master Emerald shard around his neck, "You're going against what you believe in!"

"This is all necessary!" Charge shouted, "As long as the old world exists, my new world can't come into play! You honestly think you can stand up to me!?"

"I don't think so... I know so!" Sonic said, as confident as ever. He then turned to Sparky and said, "You and me are gonna follow that radar to the eighth emerald. Everyone else, you gotta stay here and stall him!"

"It may come to fighting him. I hope you're all ready!" Shadow said.

"I'm up for anything!" Tails said, giving Sonic a thumbs-up.

"You can count on me!" Knuckles said, pounding his fists together.

"These guys is really getting on my nerves!" Rouge said, crossing her arms.

"Chaos Emeralds or not, this guy doesn't stand a chance!" Vector said, as Charmy and Espio nodded in agreement.

"That bad man will be sorry!" Big said, as Froggy seemed to agree by hopping up and down.

"It's my duty to make sure the doctor is free of any rivals..." Metal Sonic said, his eyes flashing.

"Everyone... thank you!" Sparky said, clenching the radar, "We won't let you down!"

"You know it!" Sonic said with a smile, "But we gotta hurry!"

"Right! I'll give you a head start..." Shadow said, "CHAOS CONTROL!"

Using all seven Chaos Emeralds, Shadow formed a bubble around where Charge was, and time was stopped inside that bubble. Shadow however, was obviously straining to keep all that power in.

"Thanks Shadow! Let's go, Sparky!" Sonic said, as Sparky followed him out of the city, following the direction of the eighth emerald's signal.

* * *

The Emerald radar led them deep into the Mystic Ruins. The ventured into the Echidna Temple that lied amongst the trees, and found there way down deep into this lost world. Sparky led the way, going in the direction the radar pointed him in, until they reached a room with a stone path, surrounded by water on either side. At the end of the path was a giant mural, depicting a raging Perfect Chaos.

"Hey, I've been here before!" Sonic said, "But it's a dead end! What now?"

"The radar says the emerald is in this room!" Sparky explained, "But I don't see it anywhere! Maybe it's in the water?"

"But from what I can see, it's pointing more towards the mural." Sonic said, looking at the radar.

"Well, it doesn't seem too strange. But maybe..." Sparky said, "There's another room on the other side of the wall!"

"So is there a way in? Check everywhere!" Sonic said, as he and Sparky began searching for a switch of some-kind. Eventually, spread across the room, three separate switches were found: one on the floor, one under the mural, and one in the water. When all three were pressed, the ground began to shake, and the mural began to rise up, revealing a room. Inside, on a lone pedestal, was the eighth Chaos Emerald: a gleaming orange color.

Sonic and Sparky walked up to the emerald, and looked at each other. Nodding, they quietly picked up the emerald together. Suddenly, torches around the room lit up, each with a color of a different Chaos Emerald. The room lit up with a bright light, as Sonic and Sparky did there best to cover their eyes form the bright light.

* * *

"To whom it may concern... I am one of the last of my kind." Said a mysterious voice. Sonic and Sparky's minds were filled with the image of an Echidna: he resembled an elderly Knuckles, but with dark red fur, and tribal markings on him. He was missing both and eye and an arm, and had a very serious expression on his face.

"My name is Diamond, of the Knuckles Clan." The echidna said, "What you hold in your hands is a tool of destruction. Thanks to those emeralds and my people's greed, we have almost been wiped out completely, by the monster known as Chaos. Over many years since the disaster, I have done my best to rebuild and maintain our sacred alters and temples... but I have grown sick and elderly, and feel my time may be coming.

I found this emerald amongst the ruins of the Master Emeralds' altar, not aligned with the other Chaos Emeralds. I have thoroughly researched these emeralds, and have inscribed their powers on tablets and the temples I have maintained, so they may be used safely, and never create disasters like the one that fell upon my people. But this one in particular seems unstable, and enhances the other emeralds power to frightening proportions. So I have hidden it away in the temple where you stand now, and have left this message using it's power. If you have found it, it means another disaster is about to fall upon the land, or perhaps you are simply an explorer... but I plead with you: use this emeralds' power for good, not for greed like my people. This message will most likely vanish after it is complete... and so will I. I'm sure I have long since perished, and hopefully my tribe has lived on. But regardless, I repeat:

Use this for good, not greed!"

* * *

The light cleared, and the torches went out. Sonic and Sparky were left in a bark temple room, holding the eighth Chaos Emerald.

"So not even the echidnas originally knew there were eight..." Sparky said.

"I doubt they even knew where any of the Chaos Emeralds came from..." Sonic said, "There's still a lot that needs to be found out about these!"

There was a sudden shaking. It seemed that Charge had broken free of Shadow's Chaos Control.

"We need to hurry back!" Sonic said, "Hold onto that emerald!"

"Right!" Sparky said, as he held on tightly to the emerald. He raced out of the temple and after Sonic, making his way back to the city where Charge waited.

* * *

The city was in ruins, and most of the group was nowhere to be seen. Shadow, Knuckles, and Tails remained, guarding the other 7 emeralds.

"What happened!?" Sonic said to the group.

"Charge absorbed all of them, just like he did with Circuit!" Tails said, obviously scared.

"We saw him suck up everyone in the city!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"And their lives will be saved!" Charge said, "They were foolish to fight me to begin with... they will live on in my new world! And you can too..."

"You and your new world can shove it!" Knuckles said in rage.

"We happen to like this world." Shadow said.

"Charge!" Sparky called out, "Stop this! The world is fine the way it is! Let's just go home!"

"HA! That home will vanish..." Charge said, holding out his hands, "I can create a better one! I can give you whatever you want in that world... how does a world without crime sound, Sonic?"

Sonic looked up at Charge, a bit surprised.

"You'll never have to stop running to go after a criminal..." Charge said, "I can make sure of that! And Tails, what would you like? Would you like to be famous, like your hero? Would you like to be a hero yourself?"

Tails listened to Charge, still a bit frightened.

"What about you, Knuckles? And you, Shadow?" Charge continued, "I can bring the Master Emerald... and Maria back!"

Knuckles and Shadow had equally surprised faces, both not expecting such an offer.

"And Sparky... my dear brother..." Charge said, as Sparky looked up at him, "You want things back to normal, right? Well they can be! We can go get our family... and live in peace in my new world! Just like old times... so? What do you all say?"

The group was quiet. They looked at each other, and thought about what Charge had just offered.

"A world without crime, huh..." Sonic said, looking at the ground with his arms crossed. He then looked up at Charge with a smile, and pointed his finger at him.

"What kind of lame world would that be? Talk about dull!"

"What?!" Charge yelled, clenching his fists.

"I'm already a hero!" Tails said, "I've helped Sonic save the world tons of times!"

"You should know by now Charge, you make me sick!" Knuckles said, shaking his fists, "I would never accept anything from you, especially what YOU took away in the first place!"

"I've moved on from my past, Charge." Shadow said, "And I know Maria would never want me to accept help from a tyrant like you!"

"Charge, knowing what you've done... It can't be the same!" Sparky said, holding his hand to his heart, "So I'm gonna make the best of what I have now... weather or not I have to beat some sense into you in the process!"

"So if you couldn't tell..." Sonic said, pointing at Charge again, "We refuse your offer, Charge!"

"...fine!" Charge said, "Then instead of saving you... I'll kill you!"

"Just try it!" Sonic said, "Everybody ready?"

With confirming smiles, the group of five stood around in a circle , around the eight Chaos Emeralds. Holding hands, they began to glow with a soft light.

"The servers are the seven chaos..." Knuckles said, "Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos. Eighth Chaos Emerald! Unify the servers, and enhance their strength! Filter it properly through our souls!"

The light grew intensely, and the group began to float in the air, as well as the emeralds. With one last burst of energy, Sparky yelled the activation phrase for the eighth emeralds' power: "FOGRNZGV!"

With a flash of light, their they flew:

Super Sonic, a golden yellow with his quills floating in the air.

Super Tails, his fur now yellow, with four Super Flickies flying around him.

Super Knuckles, pink in color, with his quills being blown gently upwards by an unseen force.

Super Shadow, with his white gold fur, and gleaming red stripes.

And Super Sparky, bright green and missing his yellow stripes, with his top quills pointing up, and his bottom quills pointing down.

"Alright! We'll show this guy the RIGHT way to use the Chaos Emeralds!" Sonic said, as he led the five of them up towards Charge.

* * *

The group suddenly found themselves in what seemed to be another city: a flooded mess, with buildings collapsed all over. Then they saw a rather familiar site among the ruin: Perfect Chaos.

"What that heck?!" Knuckles said, "When did he get here?"

"Where did Charge go?" Tails asked, his flickies darting in every direction.

"I think that is Charge! Look!" Sparky said, pointing at Perfect Chaos. While he seemed perfectly normal, there was something that was different: an orange jewel was sitting in the middle of his forehead.

"So he's changed into Perfect Chaos... but how?" Shadow said.

"We'll figure that out later... just leave this to me, guys!" Sonic said, "I've handled this guy before, and I know just what to do!"

Sonic took off at top speed, dashing through and dodging incoming lasers and tornadoes from Perfect Chaos. Building up speed, Sonic dashed through the base of the monster and spiraled up through his body, bursting out through the top landing back in the city below. Suddenly, the area around them began to dissolve, and the group now found themselves in space.

"What just happened?" Sonic asked, looking around, "Where are we now?"

"Hey! Isn't that the ARK?" Knuckles said, pointing into the distance. There it was, Space Colony ARK falling towards what seemed like the earth's surface. And at the front, Biolizard was pulling it downwards, with an orange jewel replacing the green orb on his life support system.

"Charge is recreating past fights!" Shadow said, "Just to wear us down!"

"So what do we do now?" Sparky asked.

"I say we just keep blasting through them! After all, Chaos only took one hit!" Sonic said.

"Then let me take care of this one, Sonic!" Tails said, with a confirming chirp from his flickies.

"Ok, go get him little buddy!" Sonic said, giving him a thumbs up.

Tails darted out into space, darting up and down to avoid incoming attacks. His Super Flickies smashed obstacles out of the way, and Tails made his way up to a swelling area on Biolizard. With one final smash from the flickies, Biolizard let out a roar of pain, and the area began to dissolve again. When the scenery reformed, they found themselves above the clouds.

"I know this place..." Sonic said, "This is where we fought-"

"So we meet again, Sonic!" Came a voice, "My loathsome copy!"

Over on the horizon was Metal Overlord, as menacing as ever. He was flying through the sky, with a orange jewel replacing the green orb on his abdomen.

"Let me take care of this one, guys!" Knuckles said, pounding his fists together.

"But Knuckles!" Tails said, "It took three of us to even damage him last time!"

"I wouldn't worry about that!" Knuckles said, gripping the Master Emerald shard around his neck, "I'm feeling stronger than ever!"

So Knuckles took off, dodging incoming attacks, and smashing through the Airships the Metal Overlord acquired from below. With a glint of green from emerald shard, Knuckles held out his fists and spun around at top speed, forming a drill like energy field around him. Crashing into Metal Overlord, he sent the beast falling downwards, and the scene began to dissolve again.

The scene reformed, and they were still above the clouds. This time however, the sky was red, and the scenery looked barren.

"I can already recognize this..." Shadow said, "This is from when I fought Black Doom!"

Sure enough, Devil Doom was there, in his menacing, hulking form. Everything was a perfect replica of that day, except for Devil Doom's eye being replaced by an orange jewel.

"He changed again!" Knuckles said, rubbing his fists, "How does he keep doing that?!"

"I think I get it!" Sparky said, "He absorbed my dad, so maybe he can transform using him!"

"So he tapped into his powers somehow?" Tails asked.

"He must have! Plus, Circuits got all our memories!" Sonic said, "So if he could change into these, he could probably change into anything we've seen!"

"Weather that's the case or not..." Shadow said, "I've got some business to take care of!"

Shadow suddenly took off towards Devil Doom. He dodged floating debris from the city below and attacks from the monster as he charged up a Chaos Spear. Getting in close, Shadow took aim and launched it at the gem that replaced Devil Doom's eye. With a flash, the area dissolved again.

The clouds were gone, and now a fiery chasm surrounded Sonic and friends. Lava bubbled below, as Dark Gaia in his final form burst out from below. His bulging middle eye had it's pupil replaced by the same orange jewel.

"Never though I'd have to see him again!" Sonic said, "Well Sparky... It's your turn!"

"Got it!" Sparky said, with confidence in his voice that he obviously didn't have before.

Sparky flew out toward the monstrosity that was his transformed brother. Weaving between attacks and obstacles, Sparky focused his attack on the middle eye. As he got up close, he released a wave of electricity from his body, hitting his target and making the area dissolve one more time.

* * *

"This is getting annoying!" Came Charges voice, slowly getting more gruff and demonic sounding, "IT'S TIME I END THIS!"

Before the group was the city: wrecked and coved with a purple fog.

"Show yourself, Charge!" Sonic said, "Let's fight the real you!"

"Charge isn't here anymore! " Came the demonic voice, "The only one here... is the the GOD of the new world!"

Up from the fog came a horrible monstrosity: It had a body like Perfect Chaos, but made out of the gel that Charge created. On it's back was Biolizard's life support system, and it had Dark Gaia's arms and Metal Overlords wings coming out of it's side. Sprouting out of his back was Devil Doom's wings, and it's head resembled Charge's, but had a large mouth of razor sharp teeth and no eyes. In place of his eyes was a large, orange jewel.

"I don't see any god here!" Knuckles said, "Just some FREAK of a monster!"

"Charge... why did you do this to yourself?" Sparky said.

"This is no time to go soft!" Shadow said, "Like he said himself... your brother isn't here anymore!"

"We'll make him see the light, Sparky!" Tails said, "But we gotta focus!"

"Everybody... it's time for a full out attack!" Sonic said, clenching his fists.

The group of five dashed in, weaving between lasers and bolts of electricity from Charge, as well as debris from the city below, somehow floating in the air. Knuckles and Tails' Flickies knocked away obstacles, and Shadow and Sparky used their attacks to knock back Charge's strikes and beams. Sonic zipped every which way, dashing in between the others and Charge's attacks. With the way cleared, and at top speed, the group flew in and smashed straight through the orange jewel in Charge's forehead.

With a scream of pain following them, the group found themselves in what looked like an infinite void of blackness, with purple orbs floating around them. Upon closer inspection of the orbs...

"Hey, there's someone in here!" Knuckles said, peering into the orb, "It's Espio!"

"There's Big! And Rouge!" Tails said, pointing them out.

"It's all the people Charge absorbed..." Shadow said.

"That means my dad's in hear, too!" Sparky said, looking every which way.

"Hey, look!" Sonic said, "Up there!"

Above them, and above all the others was the largest orb. Inside it was Charge: in his true form, rather than the monstrous form outside the void.

"I've got a feeling..." Tails said, "...that if we take him out of here, we'll be able to stop this!"

"Well, then let's go get him!" Knuckles said.

"Not so fast!" Shadow said, "If we take him out, this whole place could collapse! With us in it!"

"But this might be the only way to stop this..." Sonic said, "What do you think, Sparky? He's your brother, after all!"

Sparky was silent for a moment. He looked up at his brother, unconscious in the orb. He gripped his fists tightly.

"Let's do this!" Sparky said, looking at the group.

With a series of attack against the orb, it gradually cracked and broke, freeing the hedgehog inside. Charge floated there in the void, and Sparky flew up and held his brother in his arms.

"I got you, bro..." Sparky said, "Now let's go home!"

With a a sudden flash, all of the orbs broke, and the people of the city were freed. But the pieces of the orbs began to mix in with the void, created a swirling purple and black mess of a background. The swirling suddenly stopped, and the background began to crack and shatter, and there was a large rumbling sound.

"Oh no! It IS collapsing!" Tails said.

"But we've got to get all these people out of here!" Knuckles said, "Not to mention ourselves!"

"Then we've got to work together!" Sonic said. The eight emeralds appeared around them, and the eight Charge had appeared at well. Looking around them, it was as if the emeralds were telling the group what to do. With a nod, they help out there hands, and all shouted:

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

* * *

Out side, the monstrous being that was supposed to be Charge was cracking and crumbling. And finally, with a a huge flash of light, the giant exploded. The purple fog faded, and everyone from the city was outside unconscious on the ground. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Sparky, holding Charge in his arms, were standing in the middle of the wrecked city. No longer in their super forms, all sixteen emeralds were on the ground around them, and there was a strange blue vortex in the sky.

"What is that?" Knuckles said, looking up at it.

"That looks like... the portal the Tails' time machine creates!" Sparky said.

"A time portal, huh..." Sonic said, "Well, with that huge Chaos Control, it's no surprise!"

"So does this mean you can go home, Sparky?" Tails said.

"Theres no telling where it'll lead though." Shadow said.

"I don't think I should worry." Sparky said, "I have a feeling it leads to home... right Charge?"

With Charge still sleeping in his arms, Sparky gathered up the eight emeralds from his time. With a soft glow, the emeralds began floating, and started to carry the brothers up towards the time vortex.

"BYE SPARKY!" Tails yelled up.

"Thanks for all your help!" Sonic yelled up as well.

"This really is goodbye!" Knuckles said, "We'll see him again sooner or later!"

"Quite true." Shadow said, with a nod and a smile.

"I'll see you in the future!" Sparky yelled back, with a smile, "Let me give you... a good bye gift!"

Sparky grabbed the white emerald beside him. Using the power of all the emeralds, he yelled out "IVEVIHY!"

With a wave of white light busting out of the emerald, everything the wave hit seemed to go back in time. The Buildings were restored, Tail's workshop was fixed, the Master Emerald was reformed, and even Dr Eggman's base was restored to it's former glory. It was like the battle had never happened in the first place.

"And now... this is really good bye. At least for a while." Sparky said, with a tear in his eye. He held up the yellow emerald, and shouted, "VIZHV!"

Another wave of light burst forth, this time yellow. As it passed by, nothing seemed to happen, though. Nothing visible, anyway. Everyone was dazed looking, and unfocused.

"With that... as much as it hurts me..." Sparky said, "You won't remember a thing... I need to prevent the future from changing! Take care of my dad for me... and make sure our future is bright! Goodbye, Tails! Knuckles! Shadow! And of course you, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Sparky, Charge, and the eight Chaos Emeralds drifted into the time vortex at last. When they were finally inside, the vortex closed, and the past was restored.

* * *

"You have a visitor." A prison guard said, "Visiting hours are almost over, so make it quick."

"No problem." Charge said, wearing prison clothes and sitting behind bars. With the past now unchanged, the future remained as well. Charge still had attacked the city, and was arrested soon after he and Sparky had arrived back in their time.

"Hey Charge." Sparky said, walking up and sitting down on stool in front of the bars.

"Dear brother, what an honor!" Charge said, "How's the outside world? How are our friends? Is that sun-thing still in the sky?"

"You've only been in here for a month, Charge..." Sparky said, crossing his arms at his sarcastic brother. "Everybody is fine. Tails is still in the hospital, but he's recovering nicely. As for everyone else... it seems like I screwed up a bit."

"How so?" Charge said, kneeing down by the bars.

"It turns out I left my rucksack in the past, as well as our group photo." Sparky said, "Tails told me that while they didn't remember what happened, they seemed to remember us. So they were kinda surprised once we were born."

"Heh. So little Sparky still needs some practice with the Chaos Emeralds, huh?" Charge said with a smirk, "Next time, you gotta erase ALL their memories."

"Hopefully their won't be a next time... that was tiring experience." Sparky said, "So how are you holding up?"

"As good as a prison rat can be..." Charge said, "These bars are something... specially designed for me by GUN! They repress my energy, so I can't break out, unfortunately."

"Well, you're in a lot of trouble already." Sparky said, "I don't want prison break to be added to the list..."

"Heh, whatever." Charge said, "I need some time off anyway..."

The brothers went quiet for a bit. They looked around, and both of them looked like they were trying to say something.

"Well, I guess I should be going. The guard looks kind of annoyed..." Sparky said, beginning to walk out, "See you later, Charge."

Charge said nothing, still looking a bit uncomfortable. Sparky took one last look and began to walk down the hall with the prison guard.

"Sparky! Wait!" Charge suddenly yelled out, running to the bars. Sparky looked back at his brother's face, looking strained and anxious.

"I'm..." Charge said, blinking. As he opened his eyes, his strange black and red eyes became like Sparky's: a brilliant blue color.

"I'm sorry!"

Sparky looked at his brother in astonishment: Charge had never said those words so seriously before. Welling up with tears, Sparky ran over and hugged his twin brother through the bars.

The two brothers embraced like they never had before. These two, like two sides of the same coin. One is the spark, and the other is the shadows it creates. They go together, and can never be separated: Shadows and Sparks.

~The End~


End file.
